I have been reading for so long that I don’t remember learning to read. I clearly remember being in kindergarten in Northern California by the age of four and a half because of strong reading skills. Math is what held me back by first grade; addition stumped me for another year. But reading was a breeze, and from there, writing wasn’t far behind. I wrote and illustrated my first handmade book in fourth grade, about a young girl and her mother in a writing group. My mom thought it was cute, but went back to her romance novel she was trying to publish with an agent in New York. I don’t think she realized her daughter was taking after her… By this time we lived in Wisconsin, and only a handful of years later, my father started an amateur archeological magazine and his own press; he was soon penning nonfiction books. So I was raised in a household that was conducive to writing, learning, and history. My mother loved watching PBS and BBC and reading historical novels; my father loved movies, nonfiction, and the History Channel. By 18, I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a double major in English and Spanish. I lived in Madrid, Spain for the Study Abroad program, and was jealous of the students in Aix-en-Provence. I felt pulled north. I had only had a few semesters of French, but part of me is a serious Francophile. Then I went on to get a M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of Utah, and flirted with a doctorate in Comparative Literature in three languages.

Amidst years of teaching Spanish and English courses from middle school through undergrad, I felt a strong urge to write fiction. I stumbled on the fantastic story of Huguette Clark in the summer of 2012 and immediately knew I could write her story. In the picture above I am with my grandmother, born in 1924. She was an Eastern Star, Daughter of the Revolution, fifty-year bridge club member, inveterate party-planner, award-winning gardener, and acclaimed hostess (her theme parties were written up in the local paper). Being raised by her to polish silver, iron with lavender water, and care for both one’s home and personal appearance, gave me a glimpse into another world that aspired to very different things than my generation wanted. Whether or not a reader would buy my version of the Clarks’ lives, I couldn’t say, but I knew I had it in me to do it.

I researched for years, reading everything on Huguette I could find or watch. Then I went through a divorce and the project was put on the back burner. In January of 2022, I was living in ideal circumstances to write a novel. I took out the fifty pages I had written and took a hard look at my voluminous notes. From that point, it took me two years to write the manuscript while teaching full-time.

Why in the world I thought I could tell Huguette’s story, with my life being so vastly different from the one she led, I can’t say… However, as a female writer, researcher, bibliophile, and introvert, I could heartily agree with her decision to withdraw from society for so many decades. Privacy is the only luxury remaining in the twenty-first century.

I am now working on my second historical novel about another remarkable woman (if the plot works…). Hopefully it will be ready to be published in early 2026.