What about my style?
An early reviewer classified my mysteries as "cozy". They are written in first person and are set in New Mexico. I like to take the reader with me to places I love, so I incorporate description into the plot. Readers often say, "I couldn't put it down because I kept turning pages." I also like to infuse a bit of humor to some characters.
I write wildlife,
religious, and humorous "folksy" articles. I also write mystery novels.
When writing for the newspaper, Mrs. Head reminded me that people have only
limited time or money, so we should make our stories worthwhile. I use enough description to take the reader
with me without their becoming bogged down.
My chapters tend to be short, and I allow actions and dialog to describe
my characters more than long passages by the author. My scenes are less graphic, even when my
characters are holding their breaths.
I wrote my first
books with crayons on paper bags when I was four years old. My parents didn't know how I'd learned to
read or write. I filled diaries with
stories, wrote a romance during science class in middle school, and entered
stories and won first place in my high school literary magazine. I never stopped writing. But the first writing for which I received a
steady income were articles I wrote and published the first two years after my
children challenged me to follow my dreams.
I travelled with a wildlife photographer to Maine and wrote about the
puffins, to Bosque del Apache in Socorro, New Mexico, to write about the
sandhill cranes. I sold articles about
teaching experiences, and articles about my life in general. Then one evening, on a first date with Ron
Tucker, I watched a young woman dancing.
I began The Last Dance after our marriage.
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