During the summer when I was a child, I would get up early while everyone else was sleeping, pack a peanut butter sandwich and take my notebook to explore the neighborhood. I don’t know how far I actually went, but I was always hoping to find adventures to write about. Mostly, I remember plopping down under a big tree in my front yard and scribbling in my notebook there. My childhood novels mostly mimicked whatever genre I was reading at the moment – mysteries or settlers traveling west.

When it came time to make a living, I decided journalism was the only profession that offered me a chance to write and make a steady salary. I inched my way up from a weekly in Blanchester, Ohio, to a daily in Middletown, Ohio. Grad school at American University in Washington, D.C. propelled me to The Tampa Tribune where I covered important things like the city of Clearwater and bridges that didn’t fall during hurricanes.

The best thing about working at The Tampa Tribune was the group of friends I made. So many of us were young and single and willing to spend every spare moment chasing a story – literally. One day with walkie talkies and several people in cars, we followed a suspicious woman around the city, thinking she was connected to a big bribery case going on in the county courthouse. It ended with her being arrested, not because of her shifty behavior, but because she didn’t have a valid driver’s license when my friend the police sergeant pulled her over.

The absolute best thing, though, that came from my salad days as a reporter was my husband, Earl, who started out a reporter like me, before rising to the editor ranks. We quickly learned he should never edit my stories. I became a free lance writer as we traveled from central Florida to Michigan to Columbus, Ohio. The writing always seemed to take a back seat to the three children who arrived, one in Florida and two in Michigan.

Now that they’re older, I’m getting serious about writing fiction. I have finished two novels and am polishing them in the hopes that, one day soon, they’ll be available at a local book store.

Until then, I’m teaching English Comp at Columbus State Community College and still driving those kids around.