(Updated July 31, 2008)

Interests: Phantom of the Opera! (the movie, the music and Gerard Butler!)

Romance novels-- Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Mary Balough, Johanna Lindsey, etc.

Classical music, especially the opera-- and double especially anything Placido Domingo sings!

Cats-- I was privileged to belong to an American Short Hair gray tabby for 21 years. She owned my heart...

My favorite TV show was JAG, until it went off the air-- I'm learning to like NCIS, though. I like to watch Turner Classic Movies and The History Channel, and sometimes the Hallmark Channel, but I don't really watch that much TV-- reruns of Walker, Texas Ranger and MASH. Mostly what I want from the TV is the weather report! Really, I listen to the radio as much as I watch TV. Classical music, naturally, on a local NPR station.

I suppose you could say I'm a World War II buff-- my dad was in the Army (Corps of Engineers) and helped build the Alcan (Alaska) Highway, then served in the India-Burma-China Theatre, working on the Burma Road. I also am interested in the Great Depression-- again, probably because my parents lived through it and reading about it helps me understand them a little better.

Other info: married, no children; former high school teacher, currently laid off from the most recent job I had. On the one hand, that's not such a bad thing-- my "former" boss was an Olympic-class SOB. But on the other hand, finding something new is proving to be very difficult. (sigh) Like a lot of other people, I'd love to be able to stay at home and not have to work. I live in the Missouri Bootheel, not far from where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet. I'm not technologically advanced enough to have a Web site, and even if I did, there wouldn't be much on it-- as you can tell from this bio, I'm a kind of boring person! (And most of the time I really hate talking about myself!) I belonged to the Romance Writers of America for over 10 years and learned innumerable things about good writing from those talented people.

I have three Phantom of the Opera stories here that are completed: No One But Her; its sequel, Nothing But Love, and A Song in the Night.

Phantom Variations: Tales from the World of the Opera Ghost is now available for purchase. This anthology offers readers an exciting assortment of tales based on Leroux's tragic character -- Erik, the mysterious man who lives beneath the Paris Opera. Contributing authors will be familiar names to most readers of "phan phiction." Stories vary from horror to fantasy to action and light comedy.

Five dollars (all the revenue from the sale of each book) will go to the American Porphyria Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by Porphyria through enhancing public awareness, developing educational programs and distributing educational materials, and by supporting research.

Porphyria is not a single disease but a group of at least eight disorders that differ considerably from each other. A common feature in all porphyrias is the accumulation in the body of "porphyrins" or "porphyrin precursors." The symptoms arise mostly from effects on the nervous system or the skin. Effects on the nervous system occur in the acute porphyrias. Proper diagnosis is often delayed because the symptoms are nonspecific. Skin manifestations can include burning, blistering, and scarring of sun-exposed areas.

Desiree Lyon Howe, Executive Director of the APF, is excited about this book. She says, "Joining the APF provides you with the opportunity to play a major part of enhancing patient and physician education, improving diagnosis and treatment and supporting life saving research. To join, call the APF office at 1-866 - APF- 3635, email porphyrus@aol.com or join over the APF website. We need you!"

For more information about the American Porphyria Foundation, you can contact them at:

P.O. Box 22712
Houston, Texas 77227
Telephone: 713-266-9617
Toll free number: 1-866-APF-3635.

You can also log on to their website at http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/.

Both hardback and paperback versions are available:

Hardcover 27.99 + SH Link: http://www.lulu.com/content/2720229
Paperback 17.52 + SH Link: http://www.lulu.com/content/2719510