Wonderful food prepared from the simplest but best ingredients…

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The conviviality of friends and family…

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A good stiff bourbon (or two)…

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Sitting on a creek bank and feeling the swift, urgent tug of a fat bluegill on my fishing line… 

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The twinkling lights of a Christmas tree reflected in a strand of antique tinsel…

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Singing a joyful noise unto the Lord on a Sunday morning….

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Smelling the summer air after the grass is cut….

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A lazy, late afternoon drive down a country road…..

 

Immersing myself in a good book….

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Remembering my late mother and father, and the souls of all those sweet relatives who raised me….

 

Writing about those experiences listed above are some of my favorite things in life, and they tell you a little bit ‘About’ me.  

 

If you were to look at the road map of my life, the starting point was in the small town of Perry, Georgia 60 years ago.  Life was simple, but for the most part sweet: I was raised on farm-to-table food, fishing and hunting were year-round sports, and my family - though filled with its quirks and sometimes Southern gothic eccentricities – a loving one.  My father, the baby of his family, married my mother late in life, and I didn’t come along until fifteen years after that union – so a great deal of my life was spent around older adults.  My first cousins on Daddy’s side were well into their thirties when I was born; I referred to them all as my ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ growing up because, being a polite Southerner, there was no way I could call them by their first names.  

 

That exposure, along with being a seventh-generation Georgian, gave me a sincere appreciation of tradition, and a real sense of place – which comes across in each of my three cookbooks.  In those pages, stories and recipes are shared that comprise a six-decade culinary journey with friends and family.  As you read through them, you will hopefully get a number of good laughs – I can make a great deal of fun of myself – and I wish as well, in the rather reflective passages where a bit of sorrow is shared, that your memories are sparked about the blessings you have had in life.  

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Most recently, I decided to turn my pen toward fiction.  I’ve loved to read since a child, inheriting my Mother’s devotion to the written word; she often finished a novel in a day’s time.  Starting with Sally, Dick, & Jane I have been someone who always has a book in hand.  And my attraction has always been to works that are expansive in length, or in a series – where the characters seem to become your new friends, ones you look forward to visiting over and over again.  My intent with Ship Watch is to bring to life such a story for readers:  a tale that is engrossing, entertaining, and that will bring about many smiles and a real sense of satisfaction as you finish the very last page.

 

Besides writing, professionally I am a CPA, and have worked as a nonprofit executive for the past three decades.  These days I have the honor of serving as the Executive Director of Development for the State Botanical Garden at the University of Georgia in Athens. Married for almost ten years to my husband Tom, we have been together for 33 turns around the sun.  Home is a brick, stone, and stucco cottage on three acres in rural Winterville, Georgia – along with our best friend, Max, a twenty-pound schnauzer I found wandering in traffic back in 2014.