I stole this idea from one of my favorite authors… After a good friend said, “You know, every time I talk to you, I learn something else I didn’t know about you.”

At 52, I have a lot of experiences and realities that I haven’t really shared. Some of those are pretty awesome, so I thought I’d share the three I find absolutely intriguing at this moment. At least the three that have the very most to do with my life and the current events of my world.

First: During those important early years, I fancied myself as a dress designer, so I designed a lot of fancy paper doll clothes, then Barbie clothes, then before I had my first daughter, I designed wedding gowns and fancy dresses. My first, was my own. A decadent flounced skirt with enough satin to sail a really big ship, and a 23 foot train. It literally took me longer to stitch the pearls and lace on the dress than it took my first husband to destroy every ounce of trust I had in him, and send me running from an abusive marriage. During that interim, I designed five wedding gowns. I had the opportunity to attend an auction recently where one of the gowns I designed 27 years ago was auctioned for charity, it sold for $48,750. The auctioneer commented on the gown, “This one of a kind original, designer gown has no label and was created by an unknown designer.” I vaguely remember the bride complaining about paying me $500 for designing and making the gown, until she tried it on.

Second: Hot dogs are like my ALL TIME FAVORITE food. I prefer the really meaty ones on steamed buns, absolutely FILLED to overflowing with everything from chili to sauerkraut. I don’t know where my addiction to hot dogs came from, although my mother would eat hot dogs for every meal if she chose – lol. I’m not a big fan of hot dogs someone else prepares (although I love Sonic’s hot dogs), but I really appreciate those grilled over charcoal, served up hot on the bun with all the toppings I can put on them. And… Contrary to popular belief, I invented the Cole-slaw dog, with mustard, catsup, dill pickle slivers, onion chunks, cole-slaw and hot pepper slices. LOVE it. Absolutely. Love. Hot. Dogs.

Third: The first real book I wrote was a sci-fi thriller with aliens that escaped from deep inside the core of the earth whose complete and total goal in existence was to extinguish the sun. They wanted to stop the heat from the sun, in order to prevent the collision of the earth with the utter demise of humanity (their human-ness was questionable at best) and the ultimate fire, and create an eternity of snow. Those who know me well, will be well reminded that I love snow and am not such a big fan of sunshine or summer – WHO KNEW? I live in Colorado. Their version of eternal winter would be amazing, not too cold, just too cold for the snow to melt. The original book was written on the backs of feed cards, because that was the only paper I had, while I waited for the guys in the mill to fill my feed truck, usually in ten or fifteen minute increments while I worked at Colorado Beef. And I still HAVE the original hand written copy. For the record… I’m not a fan of Sci-Fi.

Some of my books are available on the SPOTLIGHT now.