You've looked all over the vast expanse of the Internet, and you've finally found me! Congratulations! Read the blog. Buy a book. Buy two. Send me a message. And, learn more about the scary inner workings of my brain than anyone really needs to know.
If you found me by accident and were actually trying to find recipes for beer-batter fish, let's start with a little thing called a bio:
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How did I end up here, on the Internet, of all places? (You know, along with everybody else on the planet... and probably several neighboring planets?)
In the early 1980s, I pursued a writing degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. I kept pursuing it, but it kept eluding me. To this day, that thing still taunts me.
I’ve since worked behind the scenes in publishing as a proofreader, copy editor, and typesetter. I’ve worked with publishers such as Carroll & Graf, Shoemaker & Hoard, Crown & Covenant Publications, Christian Publications/WingSpread/Zur, Pegasus Books, and F+W Publications. I also proofread author manuscripts being prepped for self-publishing or for submission to agents and editors.
I'm on the Board of Directors of the St. Davids Christian Writers' Association and am currently vice president of the Board of Education and Publication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. I also serve as author liaison for the Beaver County BookFest. Don't I sound important and busy? They just keep giving me fancy titles in lieu of pay.
Several chapters of my very first novel, Gray Area, won awards at the St. Davids conference. The entire novel placed as a semifinalist in the national contest Operation First Novel in 2004. My second novel, Do-It-Yourself Widow, fared even better. The opening chapter placed first at St. Davids in 2005, and the entire novel placed as a top-four runnerup in the Operation First Book contest in 2006.
In recent years, my short humor essays have garnered numerous awards—from a national contest on BrassRing.com to the Hall of Fame at the St. Davids Writers’ Conference. In addition to Gray Area, wo books of my humorous essays, Head in the Sand…and other unpopular positions and Fork in the Road … and other pointless discussions, are currently available on Amazon.com and BN.com. The first novel, The Scarlet Letter Opener (a cozy mystery), is also available now.
My favorite writing challenge, though, has been the yearly contest known as National Novel Writing Month: writing 50,000 words of a single new fiction project during the month of November. I love the pressure of a ridiculous, forced deadline. I’m currently tinkering with several of these crazy manuscripts, trying to beat them into submission so I can send them out into the world.
Be on the lookout soon for the humor book Train of Thought, and these novels: Secret Agent Manny, Do-It-Yourself Widow, and the sequel to The Scarlet Letter Opener, titled The Tell-Tale Heart Attack! (To receive advance notice of their arrival, be sure to subscribe on the home page!)
I also enjoy comedy, computer gadgets, movies, crocheting, reading (because it's obvious I'm an adrenaline junkie), and entertaining my office guinea pigs—Frid, Carl, and Steve—who keep me company while I’m working. I live in western Pennsylvania with my long-suffering engineer husband, Wayne Parker. We have six children between us, all of them now grown and living their own stories.
