The hardest biographical sketch to write is always your own, whether or not you’re a writer by profession. You can’t decide what to throw in, what to leave out, and whether or not you should list strengths and flaws, or just strengths.

However, anyone who makes it to this page deserves, I think, a bit more than the basics I’d send to an editor. So here are a few tidbits:

I like writing and telling stories so much that I once tried to live out a few. After getting a master’s in English, I went on to be the seneschale of my local Society for Creative Anachronism. I had a rocky start, but I did get better. (Robin Hood, eat your heart out.)

People often ask members of the SCA, “Are you in a play?” so I thought it would be fun to do that, too. For seven years, I produced and performed in shows staged by Nashville’s Circle Players. That’s me second from the left, in The Music Man, wearing a hat that looks like a bowler collided with the Kellogg’s rooster.

Although I’m single now, I married in 1982 and in 1987 had Rachel. She’s a cutie. Severely disabled, she’s the heroine of many an article for Special Ed Today magazine. This is Rachel with her nurse, Phyllis, the real life heroine of “An Act of Desperation,” which I sold to Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul.

I’m not really a complex person, and my dreams are fairly straightforward: sell books, have enough money to pay the bills and travel a bit, and settle into a cottage. In early 2006, I bought the cottage, which is now more or less swamped by books and DVDs. I write at night (I’m a lifelong night owl), and I occasionally escape by scuba diving, hiking, dancing, and going to movies and bookstores.

I’ve gone to the same church since 1993, and I even sing in the choir. It’s a small but awesome church. I’m no angel, although occasionally I play one in the backyard.

I like staying busy. Life is too short not to follow your dreams.

Memberships, Awards, and Nominations

• Nominated, Best Editor of the Year, Golden Scroll Awards, given by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, 2008
• “Strength of Choice” Award, presented by the God Allows U-Turns Foundation, in conjunction with the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, 2004
• Fourth Place, Reporting Category, Higher Goals in Christian Journalism Award, Evangelical Press Association, for “Dirty Little Secret,” Today’s Christian Woman, 2003
• Nominated, Best Fiction Editor of the Year, Golden Scroll Awards, given by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, 2003
• Second Place, Non-Fiction, Southern Christian Writers Conference, June 1998, for “Taken Hostage by the American Dream,” Home Life
• Bronze Award, Original Dramatic Screenplay, Home Front, Houston International Film Festival, 1989
• 2008 From the Heart Romance Writers Lories Best Proposal Contest Winner, for Reclaiming Daisy Doe
• Member, Romance Writers of America
• Member, American Christian Fiction Writers