Have you always loved to write?

No. I didn't start writing until December 2001.  Before that, I would have told you that I wasn’t a writer and didn’t even like writing the family Christmas letter.

So, what made you start writing?
My husband and I were living inTracy and commuting together to the Bay Area. I was teaching in San Ramon and he was working as an IT Director in Hayward. We'd drive in together, he'd drop me off, and then continue on to his job. There were many nights where the computers at his job were having problems and he'd pick me up after 8:00 pm. It was fine, until December. I was already running curriculum for May and the school was running low on paper. The secretary told me I had to "cool it" for a few months. So one night I was sitting at my desk and trying to figure out what I could do to keep myself occupied for a couple of hours. You can only clean and organize so much! At the time I was reading a book. I set the book down and thought about the story. I didn't really relate to the main characters of the book. I thought, "This story would be better if the cop had less problems, her love interest was Italian and maybe part of the Mafia, and it was set in current time." I opened a word processing document and started writing. A month later I had an entire novel written and I just kept writing. It was like an obsession and the stories just poured out of me. My kids say that for months, all they saw was the top of my head over my laptop.

Tell me about your family.
I've been married to my husband, Mark, for 31 years. He now works in Modesto at Save Mart Supermarkets as a Sr. Project Manager. My oldest daughter, Lynn, graduated from California State University at Stanislaus and is still looking for a job in Probation while hoping to obtain her masters in Social Work. My youngest daughter, Michelle, graduated from CSUS and is a Registered Nurse at Doctor’s Medical Center in Modesto. 

And how did you end up with 3 dogs, 1 cat, and a rabbit as pets?
AAT one time we had 5 dogs. We are have 3 dogs; a Welsh Corgi, Sadie, a beagle named Maggie and, our Sheltie Penny. Daisy, the cat, is the oldest one in the group. She is now toothless; however, the vet says she is fine shape otherwise. The rabbit is a pet we accumulated when my daughter, Lynn, worked at a pet store severaly ears ago. And let’s not even talk about the two Russian tortoises – they stay in my classroom!

I see you live in Oakdale, isn't that quite a commute?
Yeah, it's about an hour and forty-five minutes each way. Don't say it...I've heard it before. People think I'm crazy for driving that far to work. But I love living in Oakdale. It has that small town feeling with friendly neighbors and a slower pace. And I also love the families, kids, and staff at Neil Armstrong School. Until one of those things changes, I'll be driving back and forth. It's a great opportunity for me to listen to audio books. I listen to two or three a week. The library and I are great friends! Recently I’ve been downloading books from Audible.com.  It’s very cool.  I just download them onto my iPod and plug it into the speakers of my car.

 Have you always taught at Neil Armstrong School?
No, I started my teaching career in the San Lorenzo Unified School District. They were going to be changing my elementary school into a junior high, so I made the jump to San Ramon. The principal of my school and another teacher went to San Ramon, too. We all ended up at Neil Armstrong School, so it felt more like a family move rather than just me.

If you're teaching all day and commuting almost four hours a day, when do you find time to write?
I don't write as much as I'd like to during the school year. Most evenings I do try and sit down and write even if it’s only for a few minutes.  I find that if I don’t, I forget where I am with the story.  Even just a few minutes keeps it fresh in my mind.  I do more writing on the weekends, but most of it is done during breaks and the summer time.

What was your inspiration for writing your first published work - Death is Clowning Around?
A year ago I was having a lot of problems with my computer at school. Every time I turned it own, the wrong date would show up. One of my parents who knew I was a writer suggested that I write a story about it. I pretty much ignored her for six months, but every time she'd see me she'd ask if I'd written the story. Finally I did.

So now you’ve written Apple Pots and Funeral Plots, a second Liza Wilcox mystery.  What was your inspiration for that book?
I enjoy series books, so I had to continue the story of Liza, Tom, and Justin.  Eating contests are a world in themselves, so it was fun to delve into that arena.  And then I love apple cobbler!

So what are you working on now?
I’ve written the third book in the Liza Wilcox Mystery series.  It’s an intriguing book because I’ve delving into the story behind Liza’s parents’ death. There are a lot of surprises in that book. Most recently I am working on a couple SciFi novels.

Do you work with an editor?
Yes. Actually I work with several people.  It seems that each editor has a specialty.  Nan Musso (my sister-in-law) reads the book to make sure the story adds up, and Connie Pike works with adding the parts I don’t like to do –description and inner thoughts/feelings. My brother-in-law, Steve Lavin, actually came up with the name for Apple Pots and Funeral Plots, so he may be my new ‘find a title’ guy!  Then I go through the entire book again...and again....and again.

Are the characters in your story based on you or any of your family or friends?
There seems to be a little of me in all of my main female characters.  Some people say that listening to Liza talk is just like hearing me. 

What genre or authors do you like to read?
I read or actually listen to mostly mysteries. I enjoy Janet Evanovich's stories and also those written by J.D.Robb, although sometimes I have to fast-forward through some of her sex scenes. I also enjoy Jonathan Kellerman and James Patterson. I tend to listen to anybody and anything I can find at my public library or can download on Audible.  Recently, I’ve been reading Iris Johansen and Julia Spencer Fleming.  I love their female protagonists.

Do you belong to any writing groups?
I am the President of the Sacramento Chapter of Sisters In Crime and a member of the NorCal chapter of SinC.  My Sacrament chapter meets once a month. We usually go out to lunch and then have a speaker. Sometimes it's an author and other times it's someone who works in a field that touches mysteries, like an FBI agent or forensic technician. I don't belong to a writing critique group, although I would like to.

When you're not teaching or writing, what do you like to do?
I enjoy watching movies, especially action movies. I have a fairly large collection of DVDs and love spending a day watching a series or all the movies I have on a particular actor or actress.