I’d written all my life, but until the ripe old age of fifty, had never ventured beyond family memoirs and very bad poetry. Then five crazy broads got together and formed WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty. All of us had reached that magic milestone, or were about to, and weren’t all that thrilled with the ramifications. Hormones, hot flashes, hair loss, and weight gain were just a few of the complaints.

We decided we could either continue to bitch or become proactive bitches and write a book that not only made light of our fate, but honor our love of dogs, too. We embarked on the WOOF adventure including contributions, Hormones and Harmonies, Are We Barking Up The Wrong Tree, The Hair Of the Dog, and Old Dog/New Tricks.

Really, if we’re going to gain weight, lose hair, and feel like we’re sitting in a pre-bake oven half the night, why not learn to laugh at it?

From there, I moved on to middle-grade fantasy. Huh? Not a natural transition? When you have a recurring dream about a friend’s attic that served as your clubhouse on rainy days when you couldn’t be outside jumping rope or playing softball, you have to write about it. Write? Er…right? Cynthia’s Attic, all five books featuring best friends, ancestors family stories, and time travel, sprang to life.

Magical costumes, disappearing stairs and a spooky attic filled with dusty antiques–what more could two, adventurous, young girls ask for?

Best friends, Cynthia and Gus as she prefers to be called, are as “different as bubble gum and broccoli.” They are, however, equal in their ability to get into trouble without much effort.

Another middle-grade series, The Adventures of Max & Maddie, is also in the works. Again with the time travel! Can you tell H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine was one of my favorite books as a kid? Max and best friend, Maddie, delve more into history instead of magic.

I’ve now jumped into a totally different genre. An adult mystery series about an inept travel agent whose real talent is amateur sleuthing.

Andi Anna Jones (to find out how she got her unusual name, stay tuned!) never suspected the promise to “watch over” her late father’s wife, would involve a cruise ship murder. When her dad said he’d met a “Firecracker Redhead” at the Hialeah Bingo Palace, she should’ve known they were all in for trouble.

Margaritas, Mayhem, & Murder: An Andi Anna Jones Mystery (# 1), will be coming out in late Fall, 2017 with Imajin Books. If you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it, we’ll all be winners!