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Favorite place to write?

At my computer in my bedroom. On top of my screen are little statues of R2D2, Glinda the Good Witch, Yoda, and a silver Pig. There is also a little gingerbread house.

On the wall in back of the computer are pictures of my family. On the bookshelf next to my computer are many Wizard of Oz Books, The Maida Books, The Anne of Green Gables books, the E. Nesbit books, and many other of my favorites. There are also Muppet Baby toys, Shrek toys and Cinderella toys and some miniature cupcakes. This is my granddaughter Grace’s favorite pretend place.

I have 4 large bookshelves in my room: One had Teddy bears on top. One has Dragons frogs and a musical carousel on top. One had the grown up Muppets on top. The fourth one has pigs on top. Next to my door is a Giant purple dragon named Charlie.

Here is a picture of my grandaughter Grace

I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1943, when dinosaurs walked the world. (Just kidding. There were no dinosaurs. But there were trolley cars and five cent cokes and it cost ten cents to see a movie. That makes me OLD!)


This is a picture of me and my Brother Alex and my baby sister Kelly

My favorite pastime was pretending. – Cowboys and Indians, Cinderella and stepsisters, and what was behind the magic wall in the garden?

We moved a lot when I was young. The easiest things to pack are comic books and your imagination. Moving also means lots of boxes. Boxes make great forts.

On my 6^th birthday we were living in Paris and my mother took my brother Alex and I to see a movie called “the Red Shoes.” It was about a dancer who had red ballet shoes which were cursed. I KNEW I wanted to be a ballet dancer.

On my 8^th birthday, my Aunt Gloria gave me a series of books about a nurse called Cherry Ames. I KNEW I wanted to be a nurse.

On my 12^th birthday, I was living in Cape Town South Africa and I saw Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and I KNEW I wanted to be an actress.

By this time I felt fickle. (I had a very good vocabulary.) Here I was 12 years old and I had already chosen 3 careers.

None of them were writing. I did not know you could have a career as a writer. I thought it was something you just did. I wrote stories and poems as soon as I learned to write.

I grew up and became an actress. I did lots of plays. I married an actor named Barry Corbin. We came to Hollywood to do movies.

We had our first child in 1979. We were living in an apartment overlooking Hollywood Boulevard. Then Barry did a movie called Urban Cowboy and we saved enough money to buy a little house. That was very exciting. Actors almost never get rich enough to buy a house.

Christopher was born in 1982. Barry was doing a movie called War Games. I decided I did not want to act for a while. I wanted to stay home and raise Jim and Christopher. We traveled with Barry when he was on location. That was lots of fun.

 

 

 I wrote stories for Jim and Chris.

Sometimes they wrote stories for me. I liked their stories so much that I offered to pay them to write. I paid them a penny a word. They liked being paid. Their stories got a LOT LONGER.

 

 I decided to see if anyone would pay me to write stories.
“Jamie’s Dream” is a story Chris and I made up when he was ten.

1993 on the Northern Exposure set Barry, Bo (age 21) Jim (age13) Chris (age10)


I started sending it to publishers in 1993. It was published in 2007 when Chris was 25. Sometimes dreams take a little time.

 
This is a picture from Jim and Mary's Wedding at Epcot center in Disney world . April, 2006 Left to Right: Chris, me Jim, Mary, Barry

When the boys grew up, I started acting again. I even did an episode of Hannah Montana.

And I am writing.

“Earthquake” is being published in 2008 by Guardian Angel Publishing.

“Oh, the Things that I’ll Do” will be published in 2009 by Guardian Angel Publishing.

I have some more stories dancing in my head. Some are dancing on publisher’s desks.