My Victorian Collection of seven novels began with a creative spark inspired by music. Compositions Algonquin Trails and Stormy Sunday, by Hennie Bekker, suggested a distraught Victorian woman driving a skittish white stallion to leap impossibly-high hedgerows in a raging storm. I expanded that thought into a full-length novel, and went on to write six more. You can read the story of the woman in my novel Winthrope.
In addition to novel writing, I have received numerous awards for short story writing and poetry. I have articles published in True Story and Farmer's Almanac, and contribute monthly articles in Mountain Lifestyle. I am also published in the Loyalhanna Review, a literary magazine for Ligonier Valley Writers, and the Westmoreland Times magazine.
I proudly received a diploma from The Institute of Children's Literature, West Redding, Conn. Attended Long Beach City College and Seton Hill University.
I am also a proud past member in good standing: Pennwriters Assoc., Pennsylvania, St. David's Christian Writers Assoc., Pennsylvania, and Greensburg Writers, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, PA. I am a past member of distinguished panel judging poetry written by high school students, Commodore Perry High School, Pennsylvania.
I founded Mountain Writers, Lake Arrowhead, California, in 2013.
I now reside in Lake Arrowhead, with my partner and the love of my life, Don Knight.