Trying to convert the joys, sorrows, pain, beauty and the wonder of life into words has been a lifelong impossible quest. Writing has been my passion since I first learned to read and write. It is my way of keeping balanced in good times and sane in bad ones. The written word helps me to better understand my world and my self. I have written poems, short stories, and have kept many years worth of diaries and journals. Marriage, children, and two decades of working with high risk youth and families left little time or energy to seriously pursue a career as a writer. In the last two years I have at last had the time and opportunity to enroll in writing courses at my community college. Only close friends, family, and my writing teachers and classmates have been privy to the results of this tilting at windmills. Their encouragement has emboldened me to begin submitting some of my prose and poetry pieces. I am currently working on a novel and a short story collection and always, poetry.