Another Day, Another Step Forward

My Grandma and I in 1955

Where I Was Seventy Years Ago

I lived with my grandparents on a farm halfway between Elk Falls and Moline, Kansas. A year later, my grandmother died, and I went to live with my parents in Leon, Kansas. A few months later, it was on to El Dorado, and many more moves after that.

Along the Way

I became a ninth grade dropout, a wife and mother, a nurse aide, dishwasher, waitress, store clerk, and finally, a college student, a college graduate, and an English teacher. All of that was in Kansas.

Next Came Colorado

Single again and thirty-nine, I was off to Denver, Colorado, where I didn’t know anyone. I was back to working in retail at a mall, I became a store manager for General Nutrition Centers and moved to Boulder. Later, I learned to use a computer at IBM Boulder, a job I got through a temporary agency. Then it was back to General Nutrition as a store manager in Longmont.

And Then There Were Grandchildren

Back in Kansas, my children were having children. As the manager of a small store in which I was the only fulltime employee, there was little time for trips to see them. So I left Colorado and moved to Wichita, where I was once more a sales associate, this time at Green Acres, a health food store. To supplement my income, I took tax courses and became a tax preparer for H&R Block.

After All That

I started teaching English Composition part time for Butler Community College at the Andover campus, becoming an adjunct at the college where I had earned my Associate of Arts degree decades before. Later, I shifted to online courses.

Throughout It All

I was and am a writer. I started when I was sixteen, writing fillers, including light verse, recipes, and funny things my children did and said and sending them to magazines. I moved on to short stories and novels. My first novel took thirty years from idea to published book. The second took only twenty, and some of those years overlapped with the first novel. My writing took on more speed after that. I now have sixteen books on Amazon.

I Am Still Learning

It seems like every time I turn on the computer, some program has been updated, and I need to learn the new stuff when all I want is to be writing. I’m having that learning curve with WordPress now as I try to get this site up and running. You may be seeing weird stuff about Ernest Hemingway on some pages. It was here when I got here, and I’m trying to get rid of it. Also, I know a lot of stuff doesn’t work right now, but I’m working on it. If you are interested in how I do, please leave a comment and/or subscribe. I will update you on my progress.