I hated my name when I was a child. No teacher ever pronounced it right on the first day (I got lots of "Sarah" or "Sandra") and I wanted desperately to be named "Rose". I'm glad now that I wasn't! Besides the Hebrew meaning of the name, Sabra was also the name of the Princess that St. George rescued from the dragon. Way to go, George!
I was born and raised in Carlsbad, New Mexico, a small town in the southeastern corner of the state. You've probably heard of it because of our famous Caverns, but just driving through wasn't enough to let you know that it was a good place to be a kid.
Carlsbad is built on the Pecos River. A hydroelectric dam was built across the river and gave us the added bonus of the "Beach" a sand edged swimming area with a man-made island. Summer meant swimming lessons (taught by the Red Cross) in the dammed-up river waters. We learned to bob and breathe and keep ourselves afloat. When the whistle blew at the end of the lesson, the children of Carlsbad would dutifully line up to get alcohol drops in our ears. Not that it would do a lot of good, since a perfect day meant a little play time after the lesson . . . more water in the ears!
When we made it to being teenagers, the "Beach" became our social life for the summer as we played those boy and girl flirting games. You simply had to have a tan by the end of the first week! No one wanted to be pale and no one had ever given a thought to sunscreen or skin cancer.
School was even pretty good. Unless your family moved, you ended up going to school with the same kids from first grade until you graduated. A few of us started out together even earlier when we attended private kindergarten at Harding-Webster where we learned our ABC's and 123's along with how to speak into a microphone, curtsy or bow, and tap-dance. I was sent there because my parents were afraid I was too shy to survive school! It must have worked.
A lot of the weekday socializing during the school year took place at the library. We even had a special "teen" section . . . in direct view of the circulation desk. When the head librarian made her rounds, believe me, no one talked!
I don't recall a time in my life that I didn't want to be a librarian. I never quite made it to the degree, but I made a career for myself in libraries. From my work-study job at McMurry College, through 4 years as Children's Librarian at Carlsbad Public (hired by the same head librarian I mentioned above!) and a couple of years in the Rio Grande Valley Library system, my library career ended in March of 2003 when I left the University of New Mexico school of Law Library (after 12 years) to pursue this writing thing full time.
I certainly never set out to write a novel. I don't think I ever even dreamed I'd write one someday. I remember a project in fifth grade where we re-wrote some of the Greek myths, illustrated and bound them, then presented it to the school library. My misty memory recalls that I was editor for the book and I do remember clearly how nice it was to see it on the shelf when we went to the library.
In high school, I started writing poetry. Most of it's embarrassing now, but one was published in a national magazine. I also won the VFW patriotic speech writing competition my junior year. I wrote a few stories with friends and the obligatory essays in high school and college. I even won a library contest with an essay on "If I ran the library . . ." I remember something about having comfortable chairs!
Then life got in the way of any more writing. I got married, worked full time, and eventually had a son. There wasn't a lot of spare time to be had, but I found enough to take up calligraphy twenty years ago. I also rediscovered those childhood storytelling talents when I became a children's librarian about seventeen years ago. I began to work under the name of Wordesmythe.
A wordsmith is an artisan or craftsman who works with words. As a librarian, calligrapher, and storyteller, it certainly fit! The spelling was chosen because it was a lot more interesting written calligraphically.
In 1997 I was writing stories with a few friends by e-mail. They were just for fun and strictly for our own amusement. But one day, Taylor and Laura moved into my head and wouldn't be quiet until I'd told their story.
The first draft of Timing Is Everything was finished in January of 1998. It underwent three re-writes before I ever got the courage to ask someone to read it.
Then the dreaming started. My test readers (Thanks, ladies!) really liked what they were reading, so I began to look at what it would take to get it published. For a year and a half I sent out letters to agents, even hooked up with a charlatan for awhile (NEVER give money to an agent!), before I discovered iUniverse and the world of publish on demand. The dream became a real possibility, and on Mother's Day 2000, just over three years and five re-writes later, Timing Is Everything was uploaded to the publisher and was published in September 2000.
What's next? Maybe a historical romance based on a real person or a chick-lit story about shoes. You never know what my overactive imagination will produce.
When I'm not writing, I enjoy reading and e-mailing my friends around the world. I'm a fan of Michael Crawford (the original Phantom of the Opera) and of cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. (Don't you think they'd do a terrific duet?) And my newest musical discovery is Llewellyn. He and his music for Lorna even make an appearance in When That Time Comes.
I'm still "Mom" to Jared, my cyber-geek extraordinaire and I'm celebrating 35+ years of marriage to my one true love, Will. We still have my beloved cat, Vincent Vanilla but lost our dear Hobbes America in 2004. While her place can't be filled, Maximillian Wild Thing has joined our family and lives up to his name 24/7.
Please visit the rest of the website.You'll find pictures of some of the "real" places from the book, reviews, and a list of scheduled signings as well as excerpts from all the books.
There are also several link to e-mail me (including one below). Please do. I promise I'll respond even if it takes a little while.
And remember, time flies whether you're having fun or not!
