About Me
~~~~ Thanks for taking the time to get to know me! I've been writing since I was little. Surgery for spinal scoliosis confined me to bed for seven months without walking during grade school, giving me plenty of time to read, write, and draw! That experience shaped my life forever. I studied English and art in college and have a graduate degree in Victorian literature. I've taught high school and college English as well as elementary drawing. Other favorite jobs included being a tour guide in a historic cotton mill, museum guide in a Colonial home, and hospital public relations assistant. I still work part-time as an editor and teacher. My hobbies include tracing my family history, exercising by walking and doing tai chi, and playing board games with my family. Me with Merlin, our beloved blue merle Sheltie/Australian shepherd mix |
I live in New England with my husband and children and our dog Fergie. I've had dogs all my life and am a great advocate of shelter adoptions. For many years I volunteered helping animals by writing a pet adoption column for a local paper and hosting an award-winning cable TV show, interviewing veterinarians and other experts on pet-related topics. Over time we've enjoyed the company of guinea pigs, rabbits, fish, birds, and other pets. Two shelter mice we adopted who were supposedly "brothers" turned out to be male and female when they surprised us with four newborn babies! Before we could separate them the parents mated again, giving us another litter of nine. I'm happy to say we kept them all, with the males in separate cages so they wouldn't fight (or mate). We named them after Lord of the Rings characters, with Galadriel outliving them all!
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My other passion is genealogy. I've traced my ancestry back to the 12th century. The biggest thrill: learning I'm a cousin of Edgar Allan Poe removed by six generations! I'm descended from Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers, a great-grandfather who ran a haunted tavern in England, and an ancestor who was imprisoned and almost beheaded by Queen Elizabeth I for supporting Mary Queen of Scots! My interest began when my grandmother gave me a photo of her family taken in Scotland in 1909. It led to the publication of the genealogy books on my home page, Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs (1991) and Creating Junior Genealogists (2003). Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs has gone through numerous printings and remains my best-selling book to date.
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Our sweet little Fergie, a Scottie-Yorkie mix, ready for winter in her bed with her warm coat and favorite toys
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