Fortunately, I am not fifty years old and still in the third grade. But that is where my writing began. I would take six pages of paper, fold them in half and staple in the crease to form a book. I made up some funky characters (all third graders) and wrote a story every day. One of my classmates was good at drawing, so she illustrated the books. My classmates read them and, at recess, we all acted them out. I was a local celebrity.

Sadly, I lost track of those manuscripts a long time ago. If I had possession of them now, I would probably laugh myself silly, the way I do when I read my diaries from junior high. But they were my third grade version of the Great American Novel.

Since that time, I have loved writing. I was fortunate enough, in college, to have Mark Medoff ("Children of a Lesser God") as my instructor in several literatures classes. He required that we keep journals, writings both personal and pertinent to whatever book we were reading. I asked him one day what I should do to become a successful (i.e., published) writer. His advice was to write, write, and write some more. Journals, articles, letters, constantly write. I did all of that. My friend, Lois, can tell you that I would still rather write an old fashioned letter by hand than an e-mail. It probably takes her an hour to read a letter from me, they go on for pages and pages.

I married and had children, and I continued to write. Most of my time was consumed by kid stuff and volunteer work, so I never actually focused long enough to churn out that novel. Now, with the kids grown, my life is going in a new direction. I have been reading Jeff's blog (View From The Cloud) for almost a year, and it's gotten me thinking about writing on a more consistent basis. Plus, he has given me a lot of encouragement and generously offered his advice, which I'm sure I will need, probably sooner than later.

So that's the basis for this site. I am looking forward to writing about more interesting things than an "about me" post, but you gotta start somewhere. Oh, and I'm Mom Thumb because my biological children, and all their friends who call me Mom, delight in reminding me that I'm SHORT! I already know that, since I can't reach the stuff in my cupboards, but they think that, at my age, I probably keep forgetting.

Thanks for reading!