Hello! Welcome to my profile and page listing. I'm glad you're here.
I'm a memoir writer and published novelist, and a book blogger. I'm a frequent reader and love to write reviews of all types of books. Right now my favorite genres are Christian literature, contemporary fiction, and memoirs. I'm called the Book Lady on YouTube. I have a goal to read all the books on the Newbery Medal list (honor books included). One of my book blogs is for children's literature and the other one contains all my other reviews, lists, and challenges, plus it doubles as my writing blog.
I'm a happy Idaho senior citizen with many exciting life experiences to write about. When I was young I wondered what to write about, but now I'm so full of ideas I'll never get to write them all. Every morning I journal two pages, or three, and do a bit of Bible study as well. I've read the entire Bible. Honestly it took me years because I'm a slow reader. I started reading it because I reasoned that it is the most influential book in the world and I wanted to know what it said. By the time I finished, I'd become a born again Christian.
I'm the survivor of domestic abuse, both physical and verbal/mental. My last try at having a love relationship with a man was a disaster. He turned out to be a user and narcissist - very hard to live with! After leaving him and going no contact I moved 700 miles away and two weeks later gave my life to Jesus. Everything is much better now. I love living alone and love my peace of mind - something entirely lacking while living with the verbally abusive narcissist.
I graduated from Shasta College in Redding, California, in the Early Childhood Education program, in 1977. I learned to speak Spanish there as well. Later I graduated from College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, in the Legal Assisting program in 1991. My main interest in using these two fields of childhood education and paralegal studies is to work to help parents who have been unjustly accused of child abuse or neglect. Unfortunately that's a common situation in America these days, as well as in other countries. I focus on helping Americans only because I don't know the laws in other countries. Because there are many thousands of desperately needy, traumatized parents, and only one of me, I decided to put all my information on a website that's been on the web since 2001 - FightCPS.com.
Although my desire to help those parents (and grandparents) is the most important work I do, I have to balance my life experiences or I'll just go crazy with distress over people who I know are hurting badly. I have deep feelings for the trauma they're enduring so it can be a real burnout for me to hear these horrible sad stories every day. That's why I spent time doing other things like reading and book blogging.
I've written a lot of novels but only one is published right now - it is called River Girl, and is available on Amazon.
I enjoy making silly videos for YouTube, reviewing books, audiobooks, climbing steep hills for fun and exercise, riding a bicycle, hiking, walking, trying to stay in shape (hahahaha)… okay, I'm 60+ so staying in shape is getting harder!
I enjoy travel when I can afford it but I live simply and don't do a lot of shopping anymore, except for groceries. I guess you could say simple and frugal living is a way of life for me.
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived in San Francisco as a young adult, and for a short time lived in the Southern California town of Vista. I moved to Northern California (Redding) then to Central California (Modesto, Merced, Tulare, and Visalia) then back to the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived there a few more years in North Oakland, then Pittsburg near the Sacramento River.
Next I moved north to the Klamath River Valley where I lived 13 years in a cabin in the mountains outside the town of Happy Camp, twenty miles south of Oregon. I'd never lived outside of California before, and I really wanted to, so in 2013 I moved north to Idaho where I live near the Spokane River, about 10 miles west of Lake Coeur d'Alene. I love this area and appreciate the apartment I'm in. It is so comfortable - two bedrooms with all energy-saving everything.
I have a great view of the Selkirk and Bitterroot Mountains. The Selkirk Mountains extend up into Canada and I see only the southernmost hills. The Bitterroot Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains. I think I live in a beautiful place and there's a big city, Spokane, Washington, nearby.
Well, if you've read all this you must really want to know about me. Thanks for reading. There's a lot more to say, but I guess I'll wait and write Hubs about those things. I hope you enjoy reading my Hubs. I definitely love writing them.