About Cora

I like diversity and the unconventional, which is probably why I have lived in many places, had many jobs, and collected oodles of exotic experiences.

My childhood was ridiculously dysfunctional. Oh, you didn’t want me to go back that far. Okay, starting over…

Things I have done:

I lived in South America: five years in Colombia and five in Bolivia. Somewhere along the way I picked up Spanish, which I have mostly forgotten, but sometimes, unexpectedly and rather randomly, Spanish words pop into my speech. “Um, where did that come from?” is usually my first thought.

I arrived in Bogota, Colombia, with two children, a daughter and son, and had two more children during my South American years–a son born in Bogota, and a daughter born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I was developing a lovely collection of children, a charming little family. Having four children has benefits: when I get old and decrepit, they can take care of me. However, I wasn’t thinking of that at the time. Back then, I’m not certain what I was thinking.

Also, I lived in the jungle with snakes, monkeys, tigres (see, a random Spanish word), and guerrillas (no, that’s not a typo; there were no gorillas). Yes, in retrospect, guerrillas can be ridiculously scary; when face-to-face with them, they are . . .  terrifying. Did I mention that sometimes, I go off on tangents?

Back to the jungle . . . We had a lovely little hut with a grass roof–rats liked to run around on the rafters; probably not something most homemakers would want to deal with after a hard day at work. For a while, I had a pet tarantula; until an American visitor killed it; he believed he was doing me a favor. I grew all manner of fruits and veggies in my little garden. An ancient cocoa tree grew in my backyard, which was an expansive jungle complete with looming mountains and a rushing stream. The monkeys liked to play in the cocoa tree, and I liked the chocolate. It was the only time in my life when I could literally pick chocolate off a tree–well, chocolate beans to grind.

Meanwhile back to the States we journeyed. I have traveled to thirty-eight of the fifty states, and I lived in six: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Texas. It is true that I only lived in Texas for six weeks. I told my husband that I would divorce him if we didn’t move–I wasn’t fond of Texas. My husband and I did divorced, but I wasn’t over Texas.

BD (before divorce) and in the good old USA, we owned an onion (yes, onion) business, which crashed and burned, figuratively not literally, a cabinet business, a bottled water business (before bottled water was the rage), and finally a construction company.

AD (after divorce) I decided I should try something else. So, I taught English at the university and college level for fifteen years. I rather enjoyed helping students and writers organize, write, and edit in various genres. Sound boring? Actually, teaching is diverse, and I met enough unconventional people to keep life interesting and to gather material to create hundreds of outlandish characters.

I have spent more time in school than anyone should. But I love learning, so I couldn’t help myself. Along the way I collected a BA and an MA in English.

I left teaching because I wanted to devote my time to my writing. So, here I am, a writer. Currently, I’m working on two projects: a composition textbook and a young adult fantasy novel.

I’ve been known to do ghostwriting projects. I like helping people complete their writing projects.

Oh yes, my children grew up, moved away (alas), and are making their way through life’s ups and downs. My kids have been busy: I have six very lovely grandchildren.

If you have read this far, you must be seriously bored. My advice: go find something fun to do.