It was 1973 when I borrowed a manual typewriter, set it up on a small table in a corner of my bedroom, and started writing for publication. Forty-five years later, I have 68 published books and thousands of published articles to my credit. And I do not plan to retire anytime soon.
(Is that cheering I hear from my fans out there???)
I tell people that I’m one of those rare birds who managed to carve out a living from my writing. Before becoming a write—while I was busy raising three little girls—I was fascinated with the nonfiction article. Maybe you haven’t thought about it much—although it’s been flaunted a lot lately through terms like “fake news”, but there are infinite ways to present a thought, idea, or information in an article. I started my writing career writing articles for magazines. In fact, my first published article (and many to follow) was related to animals. It was a piece featuring horses for a horse magazine. Over the years, I also wrote for Cat Fancy, Cats, I Love Cats, and I wrote articles about cats for more general magazines as well. I also wrote for health, family, religious, spiritual, business, travel, women’s, parenting, and many other types of publications.
My books, up until 2010, were all nonfiction and covered such topics as horse care,
publishing, book promotion, youth mentoring, presenting a luau, and journaling.
Now, all of my attention and time goes into the Klepto Cat Mysteries and I’m having the time of my life writing these cozy mysteries for you. Watch for Book 27, hopefully around Valentine’s day—although it isn’t exactly a love story. Oh, Savannah and Michael are still very much in love. Even Rags has found a sweet kitty he adores. But oh my, are they struggling with a strange mystery that could be attracting some frightening and bizarre occurrences. I think you’re going to relish this one. Watch for my publication announcement here.
Ask Your Cat a Question Day
Yes, this is national Ask Your Cat a Question Day. And I found a fun article to entertain and enlighten you. According to this piece, “As we all know, a cat makes a human happy with her very existence, while the human must perform daily to make the cat happy. That’s just the way it is!” I see heads nodding. This cute article also lists some of the questions your cat might ask you, your response and your cat’s possible rebuttal. Need a chuckle today? You’ll get it here:
https://www.petcentric.com/articles/fun/national-answer-your-cats-questions-day/
You are amazing for such a long and successful career. I saw on Amazon that you recently republished a book about the city of Ojai!
That’s right–well sort of. I turned the manuscript over to the Ojai Valley Museum and they revised the book, reformatted it, and published it. Because they kept so much of my original work, they left my name as the author and added their names as editors. I’m extremely pleased with the results of this amazing, comprehensive history and I’m so happy to see it continue to be available to those who love Ojai. There’s a whole new chapter in the story of the Ojai Valley with the recent horribly devastating Thomas fire. It certainly wasn’t our first fire here in the valley, but it was probably the most dramatic. People are still talking about it and weeping. Healing from something like this and the awful mudslides that occurred in Montecito because of the same fire, will take time. For those interested in The Ojai Valley, An Illustrated History, it’s available at local bookstores and, of course, Amazon.