The original me!me! I saw started in 2011 and went backwards, but being the rebel that I am, I went chronologically. (That is not an easy word to type.)
1961 – I wasn’t
even a glimmer in my dad’s eye yet, but in five years my sisters would be
mildly disappointed at what they got instead of a pony.
1971 – I was
five. We lived on New Cumberland Army Depot in Pennsylvania, and I went to kindergarten,
which involved walking down what seemed like a really long neighborhood street
to get to the bus stop. It was probably only a block. I shared a room with my
sister Donna, and would sit at the end of my bed after I was supposed to be
asleep and read Bobbsey Twins books by the light of the hallway through the
half-open door. Sesame Street was on at 3 p.m. weekdays, we went boating/waterskiing on the
river every weekend in the summer (or so it seemed), my grandmother fed me
Bugles, and life was pretty idyllic.
1981 – Ah,
teenage years and the Eighties! I was 15, ending my freshman and starting my
sophomore year of high school in upstate NY. Styx put out Paradise Theatre and we sang “Too Much Time On My Hands”
on the bus to track meets…although I never participated in a meet, because I
severely sprained my left ankle practicing the long jump, and that ankle has
never been the same. I wrote 40-page letters to my best friend Sarah every few
weeks, receiving the same from her. I was also writing some novel or another.
The following year, on my 16th birthday, I would receive my
first-ever rejection slip for a short story from Seventeen and think “I’m a real writer now!”
1991 – What a
difference 10 years makes! I was 25 and married to my first husband, and that
January we moved from upstate New York to the Bay Area. We adopted our first
cat, Porthos. I went to three Styx concerts and thought it was a lot (hah!),
and a couple of Damn Yankees concerts. I had a couple of freelance gigs with
local weekly newspapers and worked a temp job or two before getting a part-time
job as an assistant to a guy who handled magazine distribution in the area; he
let me play on this new Internet thingie and on Prodigy, I found other Styx
fans (!). I finally found the SCA, although I would make it to only one event
(in January 1992) before we moved again. I finished my novel Fantasy in late 1990, and in early 1991 got an
agent who was shopping it around.
2001 – Damn,
talk about life changes. I was 35. I’d married Ken, given up a pretty damn good
job as a production editor, and moved to Wales. We were living in our third
house there, in fact, with three cats (Eostre and her kittens Grimoire and
Eclipse). I was at the Celtic Manor Hotel for a spa day with a friend (our
birthday present to her) on 9/11; Ken had flown home from the US the day
before. I got chicken pox (Ken brought them with him—thanks, honey). I finished
up my tenure as Kingdom Chronicler, founded the Incipient Shire of Mynydd Gwyn,
and stewarded at least one event. I flew back to the US to visit Sarah and see
my 15th and 16th Styx concerts, and also saw Blackmore’s
Night in Cardiff. I finished writing Waking the Witch.
2011 – I’ll
turn 45 next month, and I’m kind of looking forward to it. I’m working out,
have changed my eating habits, and am overall trying to focus on my health and
self. I’m living in southern California with Ken and 4.2 cats (two indoor cats,
Eostre and Grimoire; two outside cats, Teddy Boy and Zip; and one cat, Mr.
Churchill, who lives with our tenant but we pay for his food, care, etc.). We
own a 100-year-old Craftsman-style bungalow and I know more about Victorian and
Arts-and-Crafts decorating than I ever thought I would. I’m Kingdom Chronicler
again (albeit for a different Kingdom). I hit Styx show #109 this year (so
far), the band knows my name, and I’ve hung out drinking with some of the crew.
I’ve had two novel sales and seen publication of more than 100 short stories
(holy moly!), and I’m working full-time at this gig (although still not
actually making a living at it…yet!).
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