Thom Taylor has written on the film and television business for Millimeter, Movieline, and other industry magazines. He currently mines the spec market at an L.A. talent and literary agency. He lives in Studio City, California.
Maureen was born in the middle of the last century and raised on the north side of Chicago. Television was in its infancy, computers were the size of battleships, no one had landed on the moon, and kids were actually expected to find ways to entertain themselves with weird toys like marbles, chalk, boxes and string, skates and bikes and, if they were girls, a urinating doll called �Betsy Wetsy� (honest to God). Maureen attended Catholic schools and received an excellent education despite all of her attempts to do otherwise. She credits her lifelong passion for books to her parents who liked to read, as well the quality of the education she acquired purely by osmosis. She may also have… been drawn to books as a dry alternative to that damn urinating doll. The tumultuous sixties and early seventies were formative years for Maureen. Tragic assassinations, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War shaped her in many profound ways. Maureen went to college right out of high school and failed miserably. She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer today but she�s no longer the Village Idiot either. Maureen returned to college at the age of thirty-nine and it was one of the best decisions of her life. Once back in college, Maureen was amazed by how much all of those professors had learned in her absence. More than a few actually knew what they were talking about. Life never ceases to amaze. After studying history, philosophy, psychology, and lots of other neat things, Maureen flipped to the other side of the podium and taught college-level history and philosophy. This experience allowed Maureen to really appreciate what it�s like to have inexperienced, uneducated, and thoroughly self-satisfied college students look at you like you�re an idiot. However, Maureen suggests that you can have this same rewarding experience by having children of your own (and save yourself the commute). As if being scorned by college students wasn�t bad enough, Maureen also worked as a paralegal. She�s saving a discussion about that experience for a conversation with John Grisham or Scott Turow. In the meantime, her therapy is progressing and she hopes she finally has a handle on her masochism.Maureen freely admits that on several occasion she�s lost her mind. Remarkably, she�s always been able to find it again. During the last great manhunt for her mind, it was located in the back of her guest closet under a pile of old stuff she�d been hoarding for a garage sale. Who�d a thunk? Maureen shares her life with her husband Al and four cats, a dog and a parrot, all of whom have been rescued (the animals, not Al). She knows from personal experience what it means to be rescued and believes animals and people are not expendable. The more flawed they are, the more love they need. Maureen now lives in rural obscurity and writes novels. January Moon is the first in her Del Carter Calendar series. �March Storm� will be released in early 2011 and �June Showers� will follow shortly thereafter.Maureen welcomes hearing from you!