I was born the youngest of four daughters, and raised in Groesbeck, Texas, a small town near Waco. Both my parents had Master’s degrees in Mathematics and were educators; my father, a disabled World War II U.S. Navy veteran. In the beginning of my career, I taught high school English and Journalism in Dallas, Texas.

As a writer, I worked four years with the late Alex Haley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ROOTS on many of his last published books (MADAM C.J. WALKER, MAMA FLORA, QUEEN, A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHRISTMAS), and other yet-unpublished manuscripts.

In my early career as an entertainment writer, I worked as a writer/assistant editor at RIGHT ON! magazine, in Hollywood. When Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five went on their first foreign concert tour to Japan in 1973, Motown Records, chose two writers to travel with them. I was one of those writers. When Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five toured Australia also in 1973, Motown chose only one writer to tour with them. I was that writer.

I worked as a technical writer and computer programmer/systems analyst for various Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and West Africa, including Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), WorldCom, Southwest Airlines, IBM, TU Electric, Continental Airlines, CITIBANK, Honeywell Bull,and the African Development Bank.

I lived seven years in West Africa where I relocated with my husband (then an MBA graduate of the University of Southern California, later to become Ambassador to South Africa) to his native Ivory Coast. I studied French in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and in Paris, France.

I graduated from North Texas State University (now UNT) in Denton, Texas with a B.S. Degree in Education, concentrating in English and Journalism. I completed graduate coursework in Arts & Humanities-Aesthetics at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

I am a single parent of a son who has earned an MFA in Screenwriting, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; M.S. degree in Engineering Manufacturing Management from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami, Florida (UM).