If you will allow me a few postings to hit my stride, I promise not to bore you, sell your information to anyone, or pressure you to buy anything. And, you get a free gift for subscribing!
Since some of you do not know me well, let me introduce myself by telling you ten things you may not know about me:
- I am an attorney living and working in Austin, Texas. I moved here in 1980 for law school and although I’ve moved away briefly, I always move back – it is home.
- By the time I was in junior high school, I had read every book in our small town Humble, Texas library.
- Although I have practiced law for many years, I was always writing on the side. One day I was working on a file for a client that was not likely to turn out well. I wanted the mistreated client to go after this abusive Goliath company, and thought what if I could have this go any way I wanted? What would I have happen?
- So, I wrote the first book in my Merit Bridges Legal Thriller Series – Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs Boots King – based on the real life client (the names and circumstances have been changed to protect the guilty). It will be published in February of 2016.
- My son, Aaron, actually has dyslexia, and the character – Ace – Merit’s son in the book is loosely based on him and his experience with the learning disability. I love him a lot.
- It so happens that Rice University and The University of Texas School of Law, my two alma maters require almost all written tests – very little multiple choice. How did I wind up at those two schools since that is not the norm?
- I contemplate regularly and “wash” my brain with information from positive sources like Dale & Andrew Carnegie, Jean Springer, Napoleon Hill, Michael Bernard Beckwith, and the Dalai Lama. When Hillary Swank accepted her Oscar, she thanked Rev. Michael – she was talking about Beckwith.
- I heard the Dalai Lama speak at Rice University several years ago and it still influences my life. He spoke of how important it is to bring up the next generation with peace. That influence was a step to writing my soon to be published non-fiction book, Shadows and Echoes, about PTSD in everyday life.
- In addition to writing, caring for my family, reading, and regularly hitting the gym, I like to hike around the Austin trails. I also will travel – anywhere/anytime; and watch movies, all the Law & Orders, and British TV. I bet you can’t stump me on movie trivia unless it’s a horror film – not my fav.
- My best friend and mate is Bill Rodgers. We met in 2009 at a Writer’s League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference and have been together ever since. He has written jokes for Jay Leno for over twenty years and is very funny. I love him a lot, too.
