• Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan a couple weeks after Jonas Salk announced the effectiveness of the polio vaccine at Rackham Auditorium. One thing my parents did not have to worry about, at least. And yes, I am a lefty – neurologically and politically.
  • I was reading the comics in the Ann Arbor News by age 4, but obviously books were a hit well before that.
  • Checkered career: BA in Art History (and no, I’ve never regretted it and it even got me a job once!); state license as a veterinary technician; finally a Master’s of Library Science, working mostly in hospitals (human, animal… a spleen is still a spleen).
  • A cat shared my crib when I was a baby, and I’ve never been without at least one since (current count is 4). We bred, showed and hunted Labrador Retrievers; there have been Italian Greyhounds, a whippet, a couple of Border Collie/Lab crosses, and the world’s finest dog Pippin, an American Natural Dog, who could beat the Border Collies in agility.

  • There have been horses too – hunter jumpers, eventing, dressage. My almost 30-year-old mare went to her peaceful home far away 9 years ago, and it was time to lay that part of my life to rest with her.
  • I love birds, art, Paris, cheap wine, good wine, peanut M&Ms, lemon poppyseed muffins, spring, good movies, and the Kansas prairie. I also love well-written crime novels with a setting and characters so interesting I don’t even care who did it.
  • I hate noise, Chicago, most vegetables, winter, action/thriller/horror/romcoms/blockbuster/superhero movies, cozy mysteries, and anyone who hurts an animal.