Getting To Know You...

...Getting to Know All About You...I think that's the way the song goes. And I'd much rather get to know you, than the other way around. But my publisher at BWL believes it's time for all her authors to tell their readers something about themselves. So here goes...

I'm not exactly what one would call an introvert, but it's hard for me to be outgoing, and meet a lot of people that I can call my friends. I expect that is because, as a child, from the age of 8 to 12 I traveled all over the US, Mexico, the Philippines, and even Alaska. I spent the first 8 years of my life on a Quarter Horse ranch out in the middle of nowhere, Texas, USA. Then my father, who was in the Army, started being posted to...wherever.  Sometimes, the only school was the one on the base, and even when I was able to go to public school, I always tried to be the one who sat in the back of the room, and never raised my hand to answer a question. I knew that just as soon as I made one single friend, we'd be off to a new post.

Finally, my father was posted to Los Angeles, CA, and we actually stayed there! Besides horses, the other love of my life as a child was singing. Once we got settled in LA, my mother found a voice coach for me, and seven months later, I was performing professionally. I sang in Musical Theatre...you know, all the GOOD music of yesteryear, from Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kathryn Grayson...and if you are too young to know these names, you are really missing something! I also studied Opera, and at 16 was invited to audition with the San Francisco Opera Company, but my mother was working and couldn't go with me, so she wouldn't let me go alone.

The next best thing to happen was that at 16, I sang a duet with Frank Sinatra on stage at the Greek Theatre in Hollywood. There was a big concert at the Greek, for a Heart Charity, my musical troop was invited to sing, and Frank Sinatra was also there. He was asked to sing with one of us, and he chose me. We sang "Make Believe" from the Broadway musical "Show Boat." A very exciting time for me, and my one and only claim to fame!

At 19, a throat tumor ended my singing career, so I did the next best thing, and married my fiancé of a year. When my children were 7 and 12, I went back to school to finish my education, and completed it with a Ph.D in Sociology. Then, as life makes many changes, my husband and I divorced. A year later, I remarried, and will be celebrating 37 years of "almost" bliss with my awesome husband this June.

During those 37 years, my husband and I built a ranch and trained Appaloosa horses for the show ring, for 25 years,  I became a professional artist, and now we are retired...supposedly...and I am a writer and author of four books.

Writing is a lonely profession, but my biggest supporter, and my greatest inspiration is my husband. Sometimes, I get tired of this computer. I get tired of fighting with my characters who won't do what I want them to do. But he says, get back there and tell them who's boss. You can do it. I know you can. So here I am...BWL has published four books, I'm working on the sequel to the very first book, The Freedom Thief...and you know what? You have just read practically my whole life's story. Not the most exciting one in the world, but I hope you haven't been too bored.

My "Glory Days" aren't over, by Sandy Semerad

            You've probably heard Bruce Springsteen’s song Glory Days. His old friends are sitting around, talking about glory days while life passes them by. I refuse to live like that. My glory days are here, with more to come, I hope.

            

            While the past has provided fodder for my novels, I don’t live in the past and can cover mine in a few paragraphs:

I grew up in Geneva, Alabama with an unconventional mother. She wore big hats and heavy jewelry that jangled when she played the piano in church. A classical pianist and impressionist painter, Mama followed her bliss after Daddy died (I was seven when he passed). She traveled to artist jaunts, sticking me and my sister Alice Kay in summer camps--Sarasota, FL and Cape Cod, MA. On a whim, she once took us out of school in the middle of the year, because she wanted us to see the Carlsbad Caverns in Albuquerque.

At nineteen, I ran off and got married. Mama and I were living in New York City at that time. She wanted me to become a singer, model and movie star. Instead, I married Tim Ryles, from Hartford, Alabama. Back then, my life revolved around family and two amazing daughters Rene and Andrea. Along the way I earned a B.A. degree in journalism from Georgia State University in Atlanta and worked as a newspaper reporter, broadcast news director, columnist and editor. I barely had time to breathe and often daydreamed to escape reality.

Tim and I separated. I moved to the Florida Panhandle and got a job, reporting and writing columns for a local newspaper. A year or so later, a publisher of chamber of commerce literature offered me a better position, involving travel.

I have been traveling hither and yon ever since. I’ve worked with chamber publishers for many years. Being on the road has given me a chance to write the stories in my head. I’ve had three novels published: Sex, Love & Murder, (previously Mardi Gravestone) Hurricane House and A Message in the Roses (The sequel is in progress).

Would Mama and Daddy be pleased with me? I hope so, although I don't often think about that question.

Mama might be happy to know I still sing, sometimes at the Presbyterian Church in Freeport, Florida, where husband Larry plays rocking New Orleans piano. He and I have also written songs together.

            

          As to dwelling on the past, I’d rather live in the moment. I want to treasure each second of the here and now. I want to feel truly alive while I’m on this earth.

Whether I’m writing, reading, exercising, traveling, cooking, walking our dog P-Nut, (Miss Kitty trails along), or spending time with Larry, my daughters or grand Cody, I try to take a moment to say, “Thank you. I’m grateful.”

When I see a butterfly on a flower, I think, I want to drink all the sweetness I can out of life.

Did you know butterflies have none of the DNA of the caterpillars and chrysalis from which they emerge? One of my characters in A Message in the Roses mentions this, and it’s a scientific fact.

Butterflies are a true metamorphosis, and like the butterfly, I have evolved. The birth of a New Year reminded me of this. I feel new. The past is gone. My glory days are happening now, with more to come. I hope you feel the same.

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To read more, visit my web site: http://www.sandysemerad.com/

HELLO, I'M VICTORIA by Victoria Chatham

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Hello, I’m Victoria and I’m pleased to meet you. I’d rather get to know you than have to write about myself but as my publisher Books We Love suggested we share something of ourselves so our readers can get to know us, I’m creeping out from under my writing stone.

You can take it from that statement that I’m something of an introvert, a trait I believe many writers share. However, I think I came by that attitude as a form of defence. Being a first born I had something of a Type A personality, taking charge even as a child. Once, on overhearing my parents discussing how they were to get to an upcoming regimental dinner and dance, I marched from my grandmother’s house several blocks to the taxi driver’s house and promptly ordered a taxi for them. I was five years old.

But, being constantly on the move as an army brat  drove me into myself and my books. My Dad was classed as a Permanent Staff Instructor to Territorial Army units, but we were anything but permanent. After the third move when I was about eight, I can clearly remember thinking there was no point in making friends. In a year, or less, we would be packing up and moving on again. I started making myself as inconspicuous as I could at each new school I arrived at and although friendly, I chose to not make close friends. As such I was considered something of an oddity and left pretty much alone. Because I read so much I usually had an answer for everything in class, something else that did not endear me to my class mates although my teachers praised my efforts as they totted up my house marks.

My biggest passions were reading and horses. My parents could never understand where this passion sprang from and were less than understanding when I left home to work in a hunt stables. I was in my element with four horses in my string and loved everything about them from Thor's weird sense of humor, Doctor's pleasure in cuddling, Zulaika's fascination with birds and Tangerine's inability to walk, he was a constant jogger. I was at the age, of course, where boys and horses were on a par, until one boy beat the horses by a head and we were married. We produced three children, before parting company fifteen years later.

I’d tried writing as a teenager, lurid tales about Virginia, Girl of the Golden West. Virginia was my alter ego, the girl I would loved to have been. She could ride, shoot, was incredibly brave and did everything I would never have dared to do. I wrote about her freedom with utter longing. Unfortunately, my parents read one of my scribbled stories and laughed until they cried. Probably rightly, but it was a long time before I took up the pen again.

My working life after the horses and the family was a series of office management positions, some interesting others not. In my mid-30’s I took up horse riding again and gained a great deal of pleasure from being around them again. In between times I had variously been on one committee or another, starting with the PTA, then Cubs and Scouts for my boys and Junior Red Cross for my daughter. I was on our family horse riding club committee for years, helping to organize and run shows.

After meeting and marrying a Canadian, I made Calgary, Alberta my home. While my immigration processing proceeded, I volunteered for various organizations until I was able to legally obtain work in my new country. This time I went into apartment management, something that never had a dull moment. You never knew what people were going to do next from the super nice, young professional man who was arrested for drug dealing, to the cheerful hooker I had to evict under the ‘wrongful use of premises’ clause in the lease agreement. After the apartment buildings I managed properties for a self-storage company. No lack of stories there I can tell you! I guess my childhood managing ways came to the fore in the end.

These days I can look back on my varied positions and see how each one involved record keeping and writing of some kind, usually reports. I ran my riding club’s newsletter for a couple of years, wrote a book for my daughter and finally, with huge encouragement from my new husband, took up writing for myself. With my first writing group I was membership director and assistant newsletter editor, then editor for about two years. As such I attended most board meetings. With my second writers group I again managed memberships before moving on to Program Director for monthly meetings and workshops. Whereas some people are intimidated by organization I find great satisfaction in working out all the parts of the whole and making them work together. I guess that five year old still lurks beneath my skin!

These days, and fortunately retired from formal employment, I continue to write, read and volunteer at Spruce Meadows, the world class equestrian centre just south of Calgary. I enjoy hiking and trail riding in the summer. I snow shoe in winter. I’m involved in the AMBER study, a five year study being conducted by the University of Calgary on the effects of diet and exercise on breast cancer patients.

Yes, I’ve beaten that beast twice now. I was first diagnosed in 2006, had treatment in 2007 and had follow up hormone therapy from 2008 to 2013. One year after that it was back again. In 2014 my course of treatment was very different as I refused chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. Instead I chose surgery for a complete bilateral mastectomy and altered my diet and lifestyle. All the reading and research I did during my first course of treatment convinced me it was not the best for when I faced it again. Along with discussions with my own doctor, my surgeon and oncologist, I consulted with a naturopath and nutritionist. I researched several clinics that were having huge success in treating their cancer patients with alternative therapies. My friend Maxine helped me enormously in researching various superfoods to help boost my immune system. And from my early 30s, when one riding instructor recommended I take up yoga, I still go to class and practise at home most days a week.

I’m happy, healthy and love my life. I have a super group of friends, I visit my family in England as often as I can and have a great deal to be thankful for. While some women worry about maturing (hey, that’s what fine wine does!) I wouldn’t want to be any age again. Been there, done that, I’ll just enjoy now and what’s ahead.

 His Dark Enchantress

The Buxton Chronicles