My life can be divided into pre-disability and since then.

Pre-disability

I grew up in East Tennessee. Graduated from Oak Ridge High School and attended Roane State Community College, where I was on the debate team and served as editor of the college newspaper. Went to Middle Tennessee State University on scholarship, but after a year I transferred to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I finally dropped out.

I knew I had to make a living somehow, so I entered the Electronics program at a Vocational-Technical School to become an Electronics Technician. I moved to Georgia right after Christmas 1983 to take a job with NCR as a Test Equipment Programmer, programming the equipment used to test PC boards. Eventually I became what NCR referred to as a "Publications Specialist", writing technical manuals.

In 1989, I left NCR and went to work for Shoap Technical Services in Atlanta, Georgia. STS was a small firm that did work for firms that went outside for writing skills. By the Fall of 1992, even small companies like STS were feeling the results of the economic downturn, and I was laid off. Shortly after that I became ill with what is now thought to be viral encephalitis.

Since then

I was transferred for rehabilitation to Patricia Neal, where I was admitted as a total quadriplegic. When I was released for out-patient therapy in March of '93, I was in a wheelchair but was considered a paraplegic. After out-patient work, I could walk, but wasn't very steady. That's improved over the years and now I use a Service Dog to help me get around and am pretty much independent.

Vocational Rehabilitation in Georgia sent me back to college and I graduated with a BBA in Computer Information Systems 6/8/96. I moved back to Oak Ridge and completed certification as a Web Publisher. 

Enter my partner, Pat Gonser. I moved to Mississippi to be with her and volunteer as Administrative Director for Pets and People: Companions in Therapy & Service. I went to graduate school (for my MSBA) at Mississippi State in Spring 2000. 

We moved us and the program to Alabama, where I worked for the computer center at the University of South Alabama for about 4 years. Health problems forced my return to unemployment, but haven't slowed me down much otherwise!

My hobbies include my dogs, aromatherapy, making mead, brewing beer, and reading. And surfing the Web, of course!

See where my books are running at BookCrossing.com

Although raised and active for years as an Episcopalian, I've also been a member of an Assemblies of God church.  After that, I explored a non-traditional goddess-centered path before returning to my Episcopal roots.  Even now I continue to follow the moon's journey, drawn to the mystery it represents.