How best to describe myself?

What about: An obsessive compulsive procrastinator with an overactive imagination forced in exist in a black and white world.

Yeah, that just about covers it.

I am a number cruncher by profession. Actually, I am a Finance Manager for a small governmental agency with way too many statutory requirements and far too little funding. I have been married to a wonderfully understanding man for more than twenty years who has many more gray hairs now than when I met him. We live in the middle of thirty plus acres of trees and serenity. It is a refuge from the outside world and one of my few links to sanity.

My passions are as follows:

Basset Hounds: My dogs are by far my greatest obsession. I not only raise them, I compete with them in both conformation as well as performance sport. In over twenty years, I have bred close to 80 champions and titleholders. Several of my dogs have received top honors around the country as well as national acclaim. My weekends are often spent traveling to dog shows, agility trials, tracking tests, of other types of competitions.

Star Wars: I have been a fan since I watched the premier of the original movie on its opening weekend. My favorite character has always been Darth Vader. I felt there was always more to the enigmatic villain long before either his redemption in ROTJ or his back story as told in the prequels. To tell you how crazy I truly am, the koi in our outside pond are all named for different SW characters.

Graphic Design: What started out as a need has since turned into be a hobby. Thanks to some very powerful computer programs, and an over active imagination, I have become quite adept putting together ad designs for not only my own personal use, but for friends as well. I have also created several national web sites and worked on magazine layouts. It doesn’t pay the bills, but it is a fun outlet. My avatar is an example of my work as it is a composite of several different elements.

Creative Writing: One of my least known hobbies, but one that I am focusing my energies on again. Although I had several short stories published in magazines years ago, I had pushed my writing aside due to lack of time as well as focusing on other parts of my busy life. But I never stopped thinking about someday getting back to it. All of my life, I have had stories running around in my head. I sometimes even dream in episodes. Finding the FanFiction.Net site last summer finally gave me the nudge to start putting down some of these thought into written form again. Right now, it is a passion. I am not sure how long it will last, but it is a fun ride at the moment.

8/3/2009 Update:

Very sad news!

I am still very devastated after the death of my trusty computer. Even worse than the loss of an old friend, I remain in mourning over the loss of most of my data. This includes almost all of my writing, including many roughed-in chapters of my current project, “Shattered”.

I will recover, but it may take a bit of time. I apologize in advanced to everyone who has been consistently reading and reviewing my work. My posting schedule will unfortunately be affected by this considerable problem.

But don’t worry. I will finish my current project.

I promise!

Current Projects:

Shattered – The New Republic is on the brink of the collapse, the Sith have reemerged, war is on the horizon—yet everything that is happening feels wrong...So when Luke Skywalker receives an offer to go back in time to change the galaxy's destiny, can he refuse?

My current obsession. I have been toying with this story for several months and finally had enough written to start posting. Although the story starts out twenty-five years after the end of ROTJ, it will eventually go back to the ROTS era. This story is basically written in two parts. The first half I call the 'torturing Luke' section, and the second half I plan on giving equal time to torturing Anakin (though not in the ways one would expect). I do apologize ahead of time as the first few chapters are pretty dark, but if you can stick with me, I believe you will enjoy the ride.

Completed Projects:

Missing In Action – When a mission goes wrong, Luke Skywalker crashes on an uninhabited planet. While waiting for rescue, he makes an unexpected discovery.

A short AU Luke/Vader story centering on their first encounter long before it originally happened. This was one of those great flashes of inspiration that just had to be written. It started out as a short conversation and expanded to six chapters. It was my first attempt multi-chapter story, and I have been humbled by the response it attracted. I can only hope that future projects will be as well received.

It Was Finished - The Chosen One completes an important project.

Future Projects:

What Dreams May Come- Dying should not have been complicated… He had previously done it several times before. However, on this occasion, the Force has seen fit to intervene. Well, so be it. But it had never been in his nature to passively accept any situation without a fight.

This is an Anakin/Vader story, and will probably be the next one to be published.

As I stated above, I have a lot of stories floating around in my head. I will not start posting them, however, until they are pretty well completed, at least in rough form. As I admitted above, I am a terrible procrastinator. I don’t want to start posting something unless I know I will finish it. I don’t think that is fair to the readers out there.

That being said, along with several time travel stories, I am toying with a persistent idea for a sequel to 'Missing In Action'. Don't get your hopes up too soon though. I am still not overly thrilled with what I have come up with, and won't post anything until it makes me happy.