About the | Novelist
My first experience at writing a novel came my junior year of college. I had not long before read Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale and loved every minute of it. Then there was the incident involving a birthday party that my roommate (at the time) and some of our dorm mate's were throwing for me. All the bickering during the planning of that party frustrated me so that I took out pen and pad and began to write. Somehow it took the form of a story about six girls who met in college and their relationship, ups and downs, joys and pains, and I called it Love You Like A Sis (LYLAS). Oh, they did a write up of me and my novel (photograph, synopsis, and all) in the school paper-"The Southern Digest"-with the closing remark that it would be coming to a bookstore near you or something to that effect. Suffice it to say, some twelve years later, that manuscript is in a box in the bottom of my closet--I suspect…collecting dust. The one thing that that writing experience did do is made me realize that I was a writer, and, if I could write that novel, I could write another.

About the  | Storyteller
I tend to prefer stories sometimes because you don't have to invest as much time in making sure that you've stuck with the plot 200 pages into the writing. Stories are succinct, and they force you to see the beginning, middle, and end in just a few pages, and that's the real challenge--knowing when to quit or where to begin? Sometimes I don't have a novel's worth of creative ideas swimming in my head, only ten pages worth. Write a short story then. Sometimes a character is not completely developed in my head, but enough to tell a story. Then write a short story. And sometimes I just want to leave the reader begging for more. Again I tell myself, write a short story then.

About the | Poet
I began writing poetry in high school. However, I was exposed more to the genre in college, during which time I came to appreciate such poets and writers as Keats, Angelou, Hughes, Wheatley, Poe, Milton, Eliot, Whitman, Marlowe, Dante. Poetry is a form of expression that many people try at least once, and I've been writing poetry long enough to know that the first time you see one of your poems in print, you are likely never to put it down. I received a B.A. in English from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a M.A. in English and Technical Communication from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

About the | Creative Soul
When not writing poetry or fiction, I also enjoy singing and songwriting,  tinkering with acoustic guitar, designing web sites and graphic art, animating, speed painting, creating slogans, and writing scripts.

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I currently reside in Houston, Texas, with my husband Randall Cook, a mechanical engineer and mean trombone player. We enjoy boating, motorcycle riding, golfing, and watching sports.