My
life experiences have certainly helped shape the writer I have become. Not only the jobs that were directly
involved with the publishing world, but the other jobs that taught me resourcefulness, sticktoitiveness (Is that even a word?
If not it should be!), and that what my grand-dad always told me is true... I can be or do anything I set my
mind to!
To
say my career history over the past 25 years or so is 'checkered' is to be very kind. Some women sleep around . . .I worked
around. Besides my current "position" in our family greenhouse business (Cedarbrook Farm,
specializing in herbs and heirloom flowers and vegetables), where I design and implement our display gardens, choose and propagate
our plant varieties and manage the store-front business as well as our appearances at area art and craft shows, my regular job resume shows time spent as:
§ Dog Groomer (owned my own shop for 7 years)
§ Public Riding Stable Owner (up to 20 horses, offering public trail rides, riding lessons and a small horse rescue operation)
§ Veterinary Assistant (for both small and large animal vets)
§ Landscape Design Assistant
§ Clothing Store Clerk
§ Book-Keeper for Park
§ Real Estate Office Secretary
§ Typesetter for Newspaper
§ Copy Editor for Newspaper
§ Associate Editor for Newspaper
§ Freelance Line Editor (for major NYC book publisher)
§ Executive Director of Non-Profit Environmental Agency
§ Newsletter Writer, Designer and Editor
§
Household and Farm Manager
And, when I wasn't busy working, (or training for a new job), I have been involved with my hobby of
breeding and exhibiting purebred dogs. My English cocker spaniels, bred under the Cedarbrook prefix have given me
great joy as pets first, and show dogs second. I have bred and owned many champions, an English Cocker Spaniel Club of
America (ECSCA) Award of Merit Winner, an American Spaniel Club Award of Merit Winner, two ECSCA English Cockers of Merit
top producers, and other nationally recognized dogs. I have worked many times with the ECSCA national rescue program
to foster and re-home abandoned or neglected English cockers, and I insist that any pets that leave my home must be spayed
or neutered in their new home.
I'm an avid gardener, and enjoy working with herbs and heirloom flowers. I do several
seminars each year on using herbs for cooking, for decorating, and as part of natural pet and human health care.
I have
bred and owned dwarf and Syrian hamsters, gerbils, anoles and tree frogs, and have had several tanks of both
salt and freshwater aquariums. The farm is also home to goats, fancy chickens, show-bred rabbits, a donkey, pigeons
and horses as well as our family dogs and cat.
I'm a voracious reader, and my house is lined with shelves and shelves literally filled with
books. Books in almost every genre including mystery, fantasy, romance, writing how-tos, science fiction, history, gardening,
and anything else that caught my eye at a book sale. The local Friends of the Library love me, as I lug out bag after bag
of books from their tag sales. Books that no one else would look twice at, but I think "you know, I might need that for research
someday." I doubt that I'll live long enough to write enough books or articles to use the books that fill my "for research"
shelves. :-) I love to travel, and do so quite frequently, and am willing to travel almost anywhere on assignment.
