CatWhoWalksAlone - About Me

First off, I'm a nut. LOL. You've just gotta have a sense of humor, or you're going to be wanting to beat me NON-consensually in no time at all ;) Seriously. I consider making my Master smile or laugh one of the major callings of my slave heart... in the appropriate time/place, of course. And I don't mind the occasional whack my antics might get me... if it made my Master smile, then it was worth it!

Now down to specifics. Last year I celebrated the 12th anniversary of my 40th birthday <snicker> In lay terms, that makes me 52, but I disdain that as being "just a number" ;) I live alone with 3 cats (2 Maine Coons and 1 fluffy orange ex-feral). I was a single mom and raised my daughter on my own as my ex-husband took off with the blonde next door when I was 6 months pregnant. NO, I don't still carry baggage around that... it was, after all, 22 years ago. My daughter is the light of my life, smart and funny and beautiful, and just graduated from college with a B.A. in Fine Arts. She's also my best character reference... after all, I raised her! :)

I live in Greensboro, NC, where I recently bought a home of my own (my first!) and I'm very proud of it, even if I haven't gotten the blinds up in the office yet ;) I'm a medical transcriptionist and work from home via the Internet (before you ask.... YES it is a good job, NO you will not be able to get a job doing it without training... however, you can find more info on this career and the correspondence courses acknowledged by most transcription services, at www.mtdaily.com). I've been doing this over 21 years (specifically, since Christina was 9 months old), and I now specialize in oncology (cancer) and cardiology procedures such as angiograms, stent placements, etc. I also do some occasional free-lance editing of books and journals for a medical publisher on a sporadic basis... it's a nice source of income for "extras" such as vacations, large-ticket items, etc. :)

I am a pagan, practicing solitary. I take a live-and-let-live (or rather, believe and let believe) approach to other people's religions, neither judging nor evangelizing. All I ask is that my spiritual beliefs are respected, even as I respect others'. Sometimes, however, it seems like that's asking too much for some people. One Master (sic) whom I was talking to, told me I was going to go to church with him regularly "and like it." uh-huh. Anyway.

I've traveled quite a bit and lived many places, including a year in Cairo, Egypt attending the American University in Cairo as an exchange student (1983), and a year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I made it through Desert Storm and the Northridge Quake, and I've tromped through chest-deep snow before dawn to guard the buffalo from slaughter in Montana. I'm a Vietnam-era vet; I was in Support Command of the 9th Division at Ft. Lewis, Washington, as well as a short temporary assignment with NATO in Europe. I've been a postal worker, a security guard, a legal secretary, and a wrangler/trail guide at a dude ranch. I've been the manager of a Greek delicatessen, owned a motorcycle and driven an 18-wheeler. I studied Arabic, which I still speak somewhat fluently, karate, tap dancing and especially belly dancing. I was a Greek folk dancer for many years and used to give classes in that and bellydance (and would like to again!). I'm an HTML junkie and have five domains of my own.

Other hobbies include painting ceramics, loom beadwork, tooling leather, and, naturally, reading. I'm always a sucker for animals, and my menagerie over the years has included horses, a rabbit, a rat, a hamster, Maine Coon cats (thank you, Anne McCaffrey, in "Ring of Fear"!), any other kinds of cats, and the occasional foster dog from the local Humane Society, and ferrets. I'm an alumni of the University of California Santa Barbara and the American University in Cairo, and I belong to Romance Writers of America (Desert Rose Chapter) and Mensa.

In my spare time I also write romance novels; the first is published as an ebook and in trade paperback via small press, but the other 3 (soon to be 4) finished manuscripts I'm trying to find a home for with a traditional, big-name publisher in New York. I also read a lot, naturally! My favorite authors are Georgette Heyer, Anne McCaffrey, J.R.R. Tolkien and Dick Francis. And most recently, of course, I've become a Harry Potter fan :) I've been to see both of the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies a half dozen times each, and that was just at the theater! Naturally I have the DVD's and have watched them more at home. I also am a history aficionado, British (pre-Cromwellian), the Napoleonic Wars, Middle Eastern history, and ancient civilization.

Since moving here in 2004, I've taken up knitting and crocheting. I'm a charter member of the local Stitch n Bitch group that meets twice a week, along with my mother and occasionally my daughter. I'm also involved in Landmark Education since 2004, and take seminars regularly. I was surprised and pleased to note Robert Rubel referencing Landmark in his books, as well :) In fact, Landmark is how I wound up being involved in the local community in the first place, and about everything else I've done since then, including buying my first home.