First of all, I love entertaining, in all forms...the written word, as well as impromptu performances and carefully planned scripts. There is something about being in front of a group of people and making them laugh and keep time to music and persuading them to your way of thinking that is addictive. I think this is a late-developing extension of what I found in writing as I didn't begin with this approach to personal pleasure until the latter part of my existence.
When I was forty, I had been writing for several years, with some obscure published credits to my name. My children were grown and my husband played and sang in a country band. I found myself feeling unfulfilled and a wee bit jealous of those with more focus to their lives. So, I determined that I would learn to sing and play. Well, that is all very well and good if one is undoubtedly talented. So I struggled along, trying to occasionally hit the correct note with my voice, attempting to finger the right strings and keeping my poor long-suffering husband from having a nervous breakdown of embarrassment. In the midst of all this I hit upon comedy to keep myself from looking too much like the naive fool I was. These days my husband and I are two parts of a band, Country Color, which appears at local festivals and picnics.
The public library is, without a doubt, my favorite spot to visit in the world. Anywhere I go, I search out the bookstores and the libraries. Growing up in a large family, I probably used it as an escape. I would pedal my bike the five miles to town on an almost daily basis and haunt the aisles of books at the public library. But I searched in vain for people and places I was familiar with...the Ozarks inhabitants and history of the rough hills and hollers of southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. No one seemed to write of the things and people dearest to my heart, and I was always forced to settle for second best.
I married very young and had three children by the time I was twenty-three. Economics and traditions of the Ozarks kept me from attending college, and I pined away, needing something for my mind. Therefore when the opportunity arose, I went to work as an aide in the same public library I frequented during my childhood years. The intellectual challenges were exactly what was needed and I settled in for the next seventeen years. I ended up in charge of the children's services...the very place for which I was suited.
Still, I had needs that were not being addressed, so I tried my hand at writing. My first effort was brutally rejected and I determined to go at it in a more professional manner. I attended a writers' workshop held at the University of Missouri in Columbia. I learned something about writing as a beginner and the gate was open and I didn't slow down for quite a while.
In 1980 I left the library. Writing was now my choice of occupations, and I went to work for a daily newspaper, where I became combination reporter and assistant editor. I wanted to discover if I enjoyed writing enough to do it all the time and...I did. I loved writing. When I exhausted the newspaper position, I gave it up. I became a full-time 'stay-at-homer' and did a little writing on the side. I was published in a number of small local publications. I also published several articles and poetry in the OZARKS MOUNTAINEER magazine and BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED magazine. I also contracted to do a weekly column for the Newton County News and for the Cassville Republican.
After a while, I was tired of non-fiction, so I started a book. After many starts, it was finally finished. Due to a stroke of luck, CHILD SUPPORT was published. I am now working on a period novel, untitled, a juvenile fiction, Junkyard Bones, and a children's picture book, Extra-Special, Sooper-Dooper Ozark Ice Cream Cone: A Kid Mystery.
I belong to several writing organizations including; Ozark Writers, Inc., Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators, Western Writers of America, Missouri Writers Guild, Springfield Writers Guild, EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) EPPRO (Electronically Published Professionals), Ozark Writers League and Monett Christian Writer's Guild. I am also an active member of the Missouri Folklore Society, host at Elderhostels in the Ozarks and present a musical heritage program in the form of a character, Granny Dingle. I am also available for children's programs where we can talk about folk traditions, Ozarks history and hill music.
My husband says I am the busiest person and go more than anyone he knows who doesn't have a 'real' job. I agree.