Once upon a time, I was walking through the woods on my way to Grandma's house . . . no wait - wrong story.  Once upon a time I came upon a cottage that had three beds . . . crap . . . wrong again. Okay, so my life hasn't been a fairytale - it's been full of storms and tornados, but each carried wisdom in its wake. My first book of poetry reflects just that, but I make up for it in my second book full of capricious ideas and humor.

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I'm originally from a small town in Minnesota, called Montevideo (where the hell is that?). We moved to the 'big city' of St. Paul, where together with my four sisters and brothers, I managed to graduate from St. Paul Johnson High School (Go Govies!), then on to the University of Minnesota where I found absolutely nothing of interest. Starting as a Business major - that was a mistake, switching to Journalism, which was too confining, I decided to go to work - loved it - and never looked back. 

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Life eventually decided to take me to California, driving a car that had no business crossing the city, let alone the country! But I did - got married, gave birth to my best friend, ran a business, then ended up at a Middle School in Torrance, California where I can honestly say, I've never worked a day! I love it.

 

I am many things, a mom, sister, auntie, niece, daughter, friend, occasional asshole, a flake at times, a sometimes hermit, a school secretary, a student, a teacher, a mentor, and according to my dear friend, Pol, a nice person - and she's known me through thick-and-think for a few years now!  I've always been a writer, particularly a poet.  No, Lisa, I'm never going to write the great-american-novel (so, you're off the hook, John Steinbeck), but I have written a series of poetry books grouped under the series title, Doorways: A Journey. The first is dark and brooding, but not without my trademark humor - called, "Burning Fields and Winter Storms". It's available now on Amazon. The second book, "Warm Winds and Silly Moons" is whimsical and certainly capricious. I love looking at life from different perspectives. My third book in the series is in the works..

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I'm also madly editing a very important, ground-breaking book for 'my girls'. I mentor a group of middle school girls (have for 15 years now), providing them with a safe environment to talk about anything on their minds, to ask questions that would surely upset the elders, and they know they will get Truth from me - age appropriate, but Truth none-the-less. More about that later.

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I hope you like my website - it's only taken me 100,000 hours and LOTS of cursing, so please, don't email me with your comments on mistakes you've found. All my contact info is on the "Contact" page and I'd love to hear from you.