All of the professional photos on this website were taken by the fabulous Deone Jahnke
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I fell in love with words when I was a little girl (and yes I was short once) and discovered the joy of reading and hanging out with Nancy Drew. By the beginning of eighth grade I had read every book in St. Joseph's Grade School library and knew I was going to be a writer.The journey has been almost as good as The Bungalow Mystery.
In my small hometown in Wisconsin I started out my literary career by working on a tomato farm and then sauntered through a variety of jobs the next 25 years after I received a degree in journalism which would stagger a fast runner -- professional Girl Scout, waitress, bartender, journalist, bureau chief, columnist, window washer, factory worker, bowling alley attendant and once, honest, I crawled on my belly through a Utah mountain field to harvest night crawlers.
Now I write. I write fulltime because I never, not once, let go of the dream I had to do this. To put all my manic words into sentences and then string the sentences into paragraphs so that they could become chapters and then a book.
My first two novels, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows and Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn, have appeared on bestseller lists throughout the United States and continue to set women's hearts on fire. My third novel, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral was released by my wonderful publisher, Bantam Dell in January, 2006. The Sunday List of Dreams, my fourth novel, was published in 2007. Paradise in Parker P.A. is set for release on April 1, 2008. My sixth novel, The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, will also be published by Bantam Dell in 2009. A seventh novel and a book of short non-fiction stories is also in the works.
My first book, Run, Bambi, Run, a true crime story, was published in hardcover by Birch Lane press and in soft cover by Penguin books. A regional bestseller, Run, Bambi, Run was optioned for a movie and was printed in three foreign countries.
The second book, which took ten years to get published by the way, The Birth Order Effect -- How to Better Understand Yourself and Others, was published by Adams Media and discusses the psychological aspects of birth order.
In the middle of all this I've worked undercover as a journalist, been to Bosnia, won some wonderful awards, taught at two universities, learned how to ride a motorcycle, gained 25 pounds, laughed as often as possible, drank lots of wine and oh yes -- I had two babies who are now on the verge of adulthood.
My writing empire is currently based in Wisconsin where I live with my patient partner and where daughter Rachel is skipping through her last year of high school by kicking soccer balls, singing in the school play and in her own musical group and generally doing 1,000 things at a time -- kind of like her mother. Son Andrew, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pops in occasionally for free food and a sweet hug. But change is on the horizon -- the house is for sale and pretty much everything inside of it. Stay tuned.
But mostly I write and then I take a break to travel to events and book signings and conferences to talk about writing. How cool is that?
And listen -- I am just getting cranked up here. So go buy a Radish book and let me know what you think.
By the way -- Nancy Drew lives and I know where.
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