My roots run deep...
in Oklahoma. The first members of my dad's family arrived in 1900. They entered Indian Territory and settled in the Choctaw Nation. My great-grandfather was a teacher hired by the Nation.

My mom's family arrived in Oklahoma in the 1920s. My grandfather was a sharecropper farming land owned by members of the Choctaw tribe.

By the late 1930s, my grandfather had purchased 3 tracts of land and was raising his large family.
They hunted, fished, raised and sold crops, and harvested wild fruits and nuts from the Oklahoma woods.

During the Depression, my family went to California. Mom's family worked the orchards and Dad's family worked in the forests in northern California. They saved their money and returned home to Oklahoma. 

I never thought that my family's stories would find their way into my writing, but they have. My family taught me many things which guide my daily choices. They had many expressions to get through the tough times. "There's always next year. It will come out in the wash." And the one I like, "Pull your boots up and keep walking." But the one thing they didn't teach me was how to quit.

At 70, I signed my first book publishing contract with Wild Rose Press. How's that for not quitting?