Kitty with her two lovely daughters, Danika and Beatrice
Where I've been to get like this
So much of my life has been in Western Pennsylvania that remembering other places seems slightly unreal. But of course, I remember. I remember Boston, Massachusettes. I remember Northern Virginia. I remember Colorado and California and Georgia. And when I need to think of my YA (young adult) stories I remember Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia. The intensity of the school and the lines of division within the Class of 69. My daughters hardly believed when I told them one of the battles girls had was to be allowed to wear pants. It seems silly, eh? But the experience has been my foundation for the architecture of teen interaction and those feelings, longings, joys, and pains remain both valuable and valid. It's all material isn't it? |
Biography
Betsy Dowdy felt as hopeless as a ghost crab skittering along the sand. Well, sometimes so do I.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina where I found the story of Betsy Dowdy.
I don't know what surprises me more. Being called Professor Lagorio or being called to visit a school for Author's Day. Neither of these titles, Author or Professor were what I'd anticipated for myself. Really, after watching Perry Mason, I was quite determined to be a Defense Attorney. I studied acting and I love history and the Constitution. What a perfect combo. Ah, but that's not how things work out. Twists slide into turns slide into hey, what happened to yesterday and we find ourselves making two lefts and a right when we thought we were going straight. I spent many years working with juvenile offenders and addicted youth before starting to write. When I finally did start to write my voice seemed to be between 13 and 17. I don't know why. You don't fight the muse. It is what it is. So now I write for children and what joy it's brought me. Getting an MFA that included an outdoor adventure trip to Costa Rica--ah, I'm blessed. It's life worth living. Even when you spend two years researching a story, like my next book "The Ride: The Legend of Betsy Dowdy" and discover after several years of research that no one can prove she exsisted. Her story has been around for over two hundred years, and I'm thankful for that. It's just those twists and turns. Hold on! |
|
