Tell us about yourself.:
I’m rather complex, but I strive every day to live as simply as possible. Throw in honesty and truth at all costs and you pretty much know what I’m all about. I became a writer out of necessity not out of desire…so the truth could be told. Done. I’m addicted to justice and my life’s not complete if I don’t watch DATELINE and Judge Judy every day. A lot of my writing revolves around seeking justice and accepting when it cannot be achieved.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?:
I was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Los Angeles (during the Watts riots). I thought racism and discrimination would end during that era. It did not.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I’ll admit I do something rather odd every morning. At the computer I type out at least 1,000 words of freewriting, like journal writing before moving onto anything else. The odd thing: I delete it all as soon as I am finished. I purposefully erase the past, my past, immediately after I create it.

What authors have influenced you?
I was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Los Angeles (during the Watts riots). I thought racism and discrimination would end during that era. It did not.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be grateful you have something to do (writing). Putting together an outline, early drafts, later drafts, edited and revised drafts for a novel or non-fiction book takes at minimum one year to complete, writing 5-7 days a week, every week. At 66, I no longer possess one expectation about my writing, who reads it or its significance. I merely write books, publish and market them…and I use the word ‘merely’ as a joke.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
More of an adage than advice: the truth will set you free. The biggest understatement of all time!

What are you reading now?
Still looking for the next best read.

What’s your biggest weakness?
The pressure I place on myself. My occasional lack of self-compassion.

What is your favorite book of all time?
THE COLOR PURPLE. A novel about profound suffering. A novel that has a realistic ending, not a Hollywood ending.

When you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time?
Easy. My latest book: LIVE & LEARN: A Retiree’s Guide to Keep Going is about the importance of learning NOT doing. I see out purpose on Earth as choosing to learn the lessons we’ve been given. Our true life’s purpose has nothing to do with doing (anything). But, to answer your question, I love walking in Nature more than anything else I’ve ever done. Walking in Nature is my Heaven on Earth.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
Yes, I was in elementary school. THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING by Carson McCullers. As I’d mentioned, I was raised in California and southern life in the U.S. was completely unknown to me. I was introduced to another world and I became fascinated.

What has inspired you and your writing style?
Learning from life, learning from others, and writing about the power that comes from lessons learned. People who share stories of courage and overcoming have inspired me and the writing I do.

What are you working on now?
Many more months of marketing this current book, Live & Learn. It came out less than a month ago, and I will probably not be able to get any sleep until maybe next year. No way can I think about the luxury of writing something new right now. Not at all an option.

What is your favorite method for promoting your work?
I love people, but I’m not that good at socializing. Online mktg. of any kind works for me. I can interact virtually and don’t need to break out into a sweat while doing it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Live & Learn could be my last book. Next: more and more and more marketing. Perhaps I will write blurbs, ad copy, etc. Anything related to marketing this book, making sure it inevitably reaches the readers who need to read it most.

How well do you work under pressure?
It’s the way I work best. Without a deadline or writing schedule, I’m sunk. Often times, for us indie, self-published writers, we impose deadlines ourselves. They are not thrust upon us. I have worked for publishers in the past and loved it when I had deadlines I HAD to meet.

How do you decide what tone to use with a particular piece of writing?
Easy question. When you asked, “What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?” here’s my revised answer (it has to do with tone). Long ago, when I was learning about the craft of writing, I was told, “EVERY story’s been told by now. The only thing that’s new anymore is the WAY it’s told (the voice). I completely agree. I used to be an actor before I was a writer, so speaking in a different voice is not new to me. My favorite: I wrote five novels writing in a child’s voice. I wish I could do this in real life.

If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be?
I’m not a fan of the word ‘fan,’ but I’d tell them, “See yourself in these pages, in this story, in these circumstances.” With regard to my current book (spiritual self-help for seniors) Live & Learn, I learned early on re: constructing my first self-help book, “Make your personal universal.” If it’s not, it doesn’t belong in the book. Meaning, if the reader will not be able to relate to any/all of my personal anecdotes they should be edited out entirely or revised. The whole purpose of self-help writing is to engage the reader, to make it as easy as possible for them to resonate with the concepts and solutions that are presented.

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