| I continued to read whenever I could, enjoying
all the girls' mystery series, like Nancy Drew. I began to
view the objects in my world as grist for my own mystery mill
and wrote stories in pencil, filling dime store composition
books and keeping scrapbooks with pictures clipped from magazines.
Soon I was reading adult novels like Gone with the Wind.
I discovered a passion for history, especially the Civil War
years. My father, a native of Louisiana, instilled in me an
appreciation for my Southern heritage.
Gradually, my writing attempts grew more serious. From Phyllis
A. Whitney's books on writing, I learned the value of keeping
a plot notebook. When I was sixteen, with savings from a summer
job as a soda fountain clerk, I bought a Royal portable typewriter.
That fall I wrote my first book, the adventures of a girl
reporter who traveled to the planet Venus to solve a mystery.
She was a combination of Judy Bolton and Beverly Gray, and
my Venus resembled the worlds described by Ray Bradbury in
his stories, heavy on atmosphere, light on science.
After graduating from high school, I worked as a stenographer
for Chrysler Corporation for several years, two of them in
Italy. While abroad, I toured Italy on weekends and vacationed
in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and England, collecting
ideas for settings and stories in my notebook, along with
souvenirs and memories.
Back home in Michigan, I attended Oakland University in Rochester,
majoring in English. Around this time I discovered the Gothic
novel. Between classes, I used to read paperback novels by
Victoria Holt and Virginia Coffman. At Oakland the professors
gave me a strong grounding in English and American literature,
including the history of the Gothic novel. I was ready to
share my knowledge.
I began teaching high school. In the evenings and during
the summers I took classes to earn a Master's degree in English
literature. During this time I also bought my first black
collie, Heather. It seemed as if all my dreams had come true
except for one. I wanted to have my own work published.
One summer, I wrote my first serious book, an historical
romance with a western setting and strong Gothic element,
Treasure
at Trail's End. I've just begun revisiting that early
manuscript and am working on it in the hope of marketing it.
Eventually I left teaching and began to write full time. Gothics
had long since gone out of favor, but I discovered several
books about female sleuths and their dogs, so I decided to
start a series of my own with my collie, Holly, as a character.
An hour's drive from my home, in Lapeer County, I found the
perfect setting - Foxglove Corners, aka Metamora - and began
writing. Two critiques and twenty-eight submissions later,
Darkness at Foxglove Corners found a home at Five Star.
In the meantime, I joined Sisters in Crime, Guppies and the
GothRom Chapter of Romance Writers of America where I found
a group of writers who share my passion for Gothic novels.
I also discovered the Sisters
in Crime Internet Workshop and another group of friends
who helped me polish my chapters. Throughout my life, I've
been blessed with a strong and giving support group of family
and friends whose help has been invaluable to my writing career.
Today I live in Royal Oak, Michigan, with my collie Wolf
Manor Black Holly, the model for Jennet's Halley. My portable
typewriter is in the basement, replaced by a computer, and
I'm surrounded by all the books I've loved through the years,
now joined by others with my name on the cover. What more
could a writer want?
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Dorothy 
