Q: What inspired you to pick up the pen?

I wrote poetry as a child and was always awed by people’s stories. I earned a living as an administrative assistant to executive leaders in the profit and non-profit sectors. After early retirement, I took a course in screenwriting and wrote six screenplays. My novel, Concrete Wings was originally written as a screenplay and at the suggestion of two producers, converted to a full-length novel. 

I fictionalized my husband’s experience as a naïve teen sent out of Cuba on the eve of the Bay of Pigs Invasion to retrieve smuggled family jewels and help his parents and other relatives find liberty in America. I am fascinated by his journey to freedom and all that he had to endure while respecting his family and their traditions and embracing and adjusting to the American way of life. I am impressed by his intelligence, courage, and devotion. I felt it was a story which needed to be told with the dignity and respect it deserved. The script placed in a couple of contests; the novel earned: Rent

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2017 Literary Classic's Seal of Approval with a recommendation for school and home libraries

2017 The Readers’ Favorite Five Star Seal

2018 Florida Book Festival’s Honorable Mention

2017 New York Book Festival's Honorable Mention

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It was my comedy screenplay, Rent Money that won the Golden Palm Award for Best Screenplay at the 2012 Beverly Hills International Film Festival. Rent Another screenplay, Unprotected Witness, co-written with Jack Knight, veteran actor of stage, screen and television also placed in a contest. I converted that script into a suspense thriller novel titled Soaring in Silence which earned:
2019 The Readers’ Favorite Five Star Seal

My third book, Women, Work and Triumph is my way of honoring women, especially this year when we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which granted American women the right to vote on August 18, 1920. However, African American women were still denied the right to vote in some states because of racial discrimination. It would take another forty-five years for that to be rectified thanks to civil rights activists Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hammer, Ella Baker and others who continued to battle for voting rights for all, which resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If we don’t know our history, we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Q: You’ve written three very different books; how would you categorize yourself as a writer?

My screenplays and my books are of different genres which include coming of age, drama, family drama, comedy and suspense thriller. Therefore, it is difficult to categorize me. As a writer, I like a good story with interesting characters placed in unusual circumstances. All my heroes and heroines understand that success is not always measured by what one becomes, but often, by what one overcomes. I enjoy the journey and hope my readers do as well.