W R I T E R
Education
My love of land, lore and literature fired my writing muse. I attended the University of Iowa, home of the famous Writers Workshop, where I got Bachelor's Double Major in English and Journalism and a Master's in Journalism from the University of Iowa.
As a graduate student, I taught Writer's Workshop students and was exposed to the best fiction writers and poets in the world. It was heaven! Later, I would teach writing and magazine publishing at Northwestern and Marquette Universities.
Career & Publishing Credits
I began my career as a magazine writer, editor and, later, publisher at Better Homes & Gardens. Later became a staff Features Editor for Country Home Magazine, then a top-flight editor of several national magazines. I also wrote extensively as a freelance writer with hundreds of credits in national and regional magazines and newspapers, including New York Times Magazine, New York Times, Connoisseur, and many other titles. Later in my career, I served as publisher of The Writer's Handbook.
But, my life's dream since childhood was to write a novel.
My struggle to survive kidney failure and a heart attack
...and to keep writing my book!
I am one old tough cowgirl, but I thought for a goodly portion of my life that I wouldn't live long enough to achieve my life's dream, to publish that novel! But I was one of the lucky ones... I have a wonderful family and friends, and especially a lovely husband, who was able to donate his kidney! He saved my life and my book🥰 The very same day my kidney team at St. Luke's in Milwaukee told us Evan could donate his kidney, I got a call from a publisher. They wanted to publish my book! Two miracles in one day. I am in great health again and finally got that novel published...late in life right before my 70th birthday. Now I have to race against time to publish all those books that have been knocking around in my head all my life.
I'm not just an old cowgirl, I'm a blessed cowgirl too🙏💙
My Social Justice Volunteer Work & Writing
I am deeply devoted to social justice, especially for veterans, women and children, refugees, Native Americans, and humane treatment of animals. (If you've read BLOOD TO RUBIES, you know how fiercely my characters fight against injustice.) I have championed many nonprofits and initiatives, served on boards and donated my fundraising and writing skills to worthy organizations such as Chief Joseph Foundation, Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), Homeless Veterans Initiative, Homeless Women Veterans, Humane Society, International Learning Center, Women's Political Caucus, and others. In fact, a portion of my royalties for my debut novel, BLOOD TO RUBIES, goes to the Chief Joseph Foundation, for their amazing youth programs empowering Nez Perce young people through their horse culture and working with Appaloosas to developing discipline and study skills
to become first-generation college and trade-school students!
I
love
all
critters!
And I love history too.
Visit my popular
frontier
history blog
Notes from the Frontier at NotesfromtheFrontier.com
& on Facebook!
Now with more than 100,000 readers and nearly 400 posts.
Blood to Rubies is available in
Hardcover • Softcover • Kindle • Audiobook
in bookstores & on Amazon
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WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO ABOUT BLOOD TO RUBIES
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Many thanks to Peter Buffett, the composer of Dances with Wolves,
for sharing this soundtrack from Kevin Costner's 500 Nations
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