Once upon a time, not so very long ago, in a little town in South Carolina, a pretty young bookkeeper and a handsome young teacher fell in love. They married and moved to North Carolina where a couple of years later baby made three. That baby girl was me! Being very creative even then I tried to enter the world backwards but the doctor arrived in time and turned me around. Still, he accidentally stuck me in the eye! Ouch! That little accident harmed the muscles in my left eye but even so I can see quite well, thank you. Later my daddy was put in charge of a CCC camp. CCC stood for Civilian Conservation Corp. That was a crew of men who worked together to build all sorts of good things. His crew built Morrow Mountain State Park in Mount Gilead, North Carolina. The day we moved there my momma went to the hospital to get my baby sister. But the Lord did a wonderful thing for me. He gave me Mammy and Bill. That was Dr. Bill and Nelle Stork. Bill was the Presbyterian pastor in Mount Gilead and they kept me while my momma was in the hospital and my daddy was working his new job. They became my second parents and were the ones who taught me about Jesus. God, our Father, saw that I needed Mammy and Bill and that they needed me and so He put us together. He is so good! Just in case you are wondering - Mammy is a Southern name for a second mother. I was only two when I went to stay with the Storks and it was the name Mammy taught me to call her. I loved Mammy and Bill so much. I was so young when I went to stay with them that it was years before I realized that everyone didn’t have two sets of parents! Soon my daddy had to go overseas to fight in World War II and we went to live with my grandparents on a great big farm in South Carolina. That was the most fun I ever had! My grandmother was a wonderful artist and storyteller. She would put on shadow shows for us. My aunts would put a sheet up over the living room door and then act out the story with a lamp behind them to cast a shadow while Grandmomma told the story. I had a lot of cousins and our favorite story was BILLY GOAT GRUFF. There wasn’t any television then. But we didn’t miss it. We had more fun than all the kids with television could ever have because we had active imaginations and we were given plenty of free time to play and make up all sorts of games and fun things to do. I was a tomboy so we spent a lot of time climbing trees and playing cowboys and Indians, digging fishing worms and swimming. After our daddy came home we moved to a farm in North Carolina. Then, our baby brother was born. Finally we moved to a house that had been built by our great-granddaddy when he returned from the Civil War. That house was full of history! It was in that old house that I read every single NANCY DREW and HARDY BOYS book ever written. I especially loved to read biographies of the heroes of American history like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone. But my favorite books were STRAWBERRY GIRL by Lois Lenski and KING OF THE WIND by Marguerite Henry. I was so excited the day these brand new books arrived in my classroom. I can still smell the new book smell and remember how the pages sounded as they were opened for the very first time. Reading took me places I had never been before and introduced me to people I would never get to meet otherwise. Books can be wonderful blessings. There wasn’t any air conditioning back then and in summer when it was too hot to sleep we would all go out on the porch. The moon and stars would be so bright we wouldn’t need a light. We would make pallets out of old quilts and Daddy would tell us stories to the music of the frogs and crickets till we fell asleep. I know this is all “old history” but it is important because it tells you how my imagination and creative talents were formed and how I came to love Jesus from a very early age. And more than anything I want to help you to be able to imagine creatively and to come to know Jesus from a young age, too, and to have fun while you are doing it! After we were married my husband went into the army and we moved to Columbus, Georgia, where Fort Benning is located, and we’ve been here ever since! Our son and three daughters were born and raised here. They were married here and most of my grandchildren were born here. My great-grandchildren live in Little Rock, Arkansas. I miss them every day. I was a Scout Leader for ten years and when my youngest was in second grade I entered college to earn a degree in Art. After that I taught art for a few years till I got sick and had to be in the hospital a lot and have several operations. The doctor told me I was going to die. He said, “There is nothing I or any other doctor can do to save you.” “Thank God there is nothing you can do,” I said to him. “Now God can work!” And He did! After that I took some college drama courses and decided to go to Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, to earn my Masters in Drama. Now, young people, that was some real fun! Regent is a Christian university and it was so much fun I hated to leave but I had to come back to Georgia because Columbus is where the Lord wanted me to be. For the past twenty years I have written drama, acted and directed drama, and done lots of dramatic storytelling. The most fun has been working with young people! Now some of my books and plays are being published. Only THE MAGI CHRONICLES is out at the present time but we pray more will be published soon. In the meantime we can have some fun on this website. Okay? Okay! And remember, I’d love to hear from you.