The Authors Guild describes me as an emerging writer. That is true, but not the whole story. I am an old emerging writer who has been trying to emerge for quite some time. I introduce myself as a former public-school teacher (B.S. and M.Ed.) with a brief teaching career of endeavoring to enlighten high school students in Texas and Maryland about American history. I mention my brief teaching career because it is what led to me becoming an aged emerging writer.

I have travelled extensively, with both good and bad consequences. During university years, I participated in a daunting study trip into the former USSR, which included my harrowing hospitalization in what was then known as Leningrad. I haven't yet but could write a riveting story about it. Everything about the USSR was educational; nothing about it was habit forming. My foreign destinations have included Japan, the United Kingdom, Austria, and South Africa. I have chalked up memorable train travel experiences. The worst? My miserable, interminable train trip from Vienna, Austria to Moscow. The exciting? Japan's bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. The best? My trip aboard South Africa's luxurious Blue Train, viewing fascinating scenery along the way, from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

I resided for four years in Johannesburg, as a result of my late husband, a well-respected and experienced chemical engineer, being selected to assist in designing and overseeing construction of the Mossel Bay gas refinery, which directly faces the Indian Ocean, on South Africa's beautiful southern coast. Following residence in South Africa and resuming residence in the United States, I renewed my research begun years before, interspersed with lengthy caregiving for family members in need of my full-time care.

A few decades ago, I commenced intensive research, beginning at the Library of Congress, concerning Abraham Lincoln's ideology and political doctrine as compared with that of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. This research evolved into a two-book series, completed but not yet published. I am currently a resident of Plano, Texas and exploring avenues of self-publishing. It is my privilege to be a member of The Authors Guild.