I live in beautiful, green, western Washington (the state, not DC), USA, where I share a house on five-plus partially wooded acres of land with my brother, Richard Lewis. We’re both retired. We have no animals, other than the deer and rabbits that invade our yard to munch on plants, plus squirrels, raccoons, possums, and an occasional skunk. There are a few (possibly feral) cats that hunt the property. We have a fenced garden with a few fruit and nut trees, but most of the nuts go to the squirrels and blue jays. After five days with no power to the well during the big storm of 2006, we also acquired a propane tank and standby generator.
I was born and raised in Corona, California (former lemon capitol of the USA, now a sprawling sea of houses with little agriculture left), but I’ve lived long enough in Washington to almost qualify as a native. Except for returning to California for a couple of years to care for my mom in her final illness, I’ve been a Washingtonian over fifty years.
Three of my four children live close enough to see them and the grandchildren fairly often. My daughter and her family live in Alaska, but fly down for visits.
In my previous existence I was a rebar detailer and estimator for close to thirty years. I also processed Navy missile test data during the cold war, was a draftsman in an aluminum extrusion mill, processed inventory and other records for a furniture company, was a nanny, was a keypuncher (like data entry but with punched cards) and trainee computer programmer at a steel mill, ran a day care home, and did various other short-lived jobs including working on a packaging production line, taking inventory in grocery stores, and CAD drafting for a civil engineer.
I’m a college dropout, although I’ve taken lots of courses over the years. I finally picked up an AA degree from Highline College at the age of 60.
I’ve been a dreamer of dreams and a teller of tales all my life. Once my children were grown, or nearly so, I began writing in earnest, producing a prolific profusion of poems, stories, songs, and even a few sermons. A painting sparked the Healer’s Apprentice books, and a story to comfort a granddaughter led to the Hall of Doors series. My main writing interest is fantasy (or “soft” science fiction) stories for children and young adults although I also do a lot of religious/inspirational poems and essays. I’m a member of Critters and the Critter-Litter online writing groups, and the (local) Lewis County Writers Guild.
As the default custodian of well over a century’s worth of family photos, correspondence, and other papers, I dabble with genealogy and have an ongoing project of writing biographies of my ancestors. Combining my genealogical interests with my love of writing, I’ve also done several scripts for the Halloween “cemetery stroll” in my home town, which highlights the lives of various “residents” of the town’s pioneer cemetery.
Hobbies other than writing? I sewed most of my own clothes in my teens and twenties, and used to make a lot of quilts, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. but haven’t done much in that line in recent years. I read a lot, or as much as I can get away with.
There’s been a lot of packing and unpacking, and we’re still dealing with accumulated “stuff” including much that belongs to my kids. There was the hurried move to California when my brother admitted he couldn’t take care of Mom by himself anymore; the long process of sorting and dealing with sixty plus years worth of accumulation (Mom and Dad were both packrats, although Mom was worse, and had acquired stuff from her parents and grandparents as well) at the family home; packing up far more than we really needed and helping my brother sell the house, where he had lived all his life; moving to temporary quarters in Washington while we house-shopped; finally moving into this house. Then my daughter moved in and out again, and my youngest son did the same.
The settling-in process continues even after more than fifteen years; perhaps eventually I’ll get it all organized. We installed bookshelves in our big shop building, as well as many in the house, but the library still isn’t as organized as I’d like. I hope I never have to move again!!
updated 03-09-23