I believe in life-long learning, mostly through travel, but through classroom education and training as well. Beyond the master's level in college, I earned a Public Management Certificate and took Spanish and French language classes for fun even up to a few years ago. I have wide-ranging paid writing experience. During the twelve years I taught English and art, I wrote and illustrated art manuals for elementary teachers. After relocating to Arizona, I gave up teaching and worked in business, industry, and government. I worked for an advertising agency as a copywriter and wrote company sales newsletters. I wrote technical manuals and was a conference presenter for the Arizona Department of… Education, the EPA, and the US Department of Labor. My final job before taking an early retirement to devote myself to fiction writing, illustration, and artwork, was as the assistant to a spa director where I wrote sales materials and print and radio advertising copy.I wrote a cautionary book for single women who are dating through the internet and had poetry published in an anthology. I have written several unpublished books for my children, a novella, "Madame Woo," which is illustrated in color, and "Madame-Woo-Too," the same story, but it's illustrated in black and white. Years ago I wrote a fiction novel manuscript on an IBM Selectric. The only copy was lost in a flood. I hope to rewrite that story someday, but for now, my interest lies is completing the series, "Bound by Destiny," beginning with the novel, "In a World Apart."