I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. For more than 20 years I published an anthropomorphic sci-fi/space opera literary fanzine. I write fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and nonfiction. I attend and/or work on the staff for several anthropormorphics, anime, and science fiction conventions, and (even worse) I recruit.

I live in the Seattle metropolitan area with my wonderful husband, still completely amazed that he puts up with me at all.

I am a fan of many things besides the aforementioned science fiction and related topics. These enthusiasms range from the silly (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), to the venerated (Sherlock Holmes), to the highly specialized (typography, history and development thereof), to the highly technical (UNIX, Apple products, information management systems design), to the mundane (television mystery shows). A few are worth going into a bit more:

I love purple. I suppose it is a bit of a cliché, but if purple is an option, I’ll always take it. If it isn’t, then I’ll go next for a nice hot pink or intense red. And I think orange is a highly underrated color, as well.

I collect manual typewriters. The one I’ve owned longest is a 1952 Remington Letter-Riter, which was given to me by my paternal grandmother when I was eleven or twelve years old.

The typewriter pictured to the right is a completely different model, a 1950s Hermes Rocket portable. It was given to me as a Christmas present after friends heard me going on about one that another friend had acquired. My Hermes is also the source of the banner image on the main page of this site.

I learned to type on my mom’s ’50s pink Smith-Corona Silent-Super (a typewriter she lost under less-than-pleasant circumstances, alas). The image at the left is cropped out of an old family photo. Every now and then I find one of the pink models for sale online, but I always either got there after they have been sold, or found the asking price out of my budget. Then my dear husband found one for me and bought it as a birthday present. I’m still working on restoring it. It works, just not as smoothly as I’d like.

In addition to the Remington and the Hermes, I own three different Smith-Corona models: a Classic 12 (from the 70s), a Galaxie (yes, spelled that way), and now (finally) a Silent-Super. All of my typewriters are in working order, and get a workout every now and then doing a writing exercise/workshop called a Writer’s Round Robin. My five anachronistic machines may seem like a lot, but I have a friend who owns even more typewriters!

I also collect dictionaries. I have five unabridged: The Compact Oxford English Dictionary (the one sold with a magnifier), Merriam-Webster’s Third International, (Random House) Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, Dorset & Baber’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, and The Complete Unabridged Little & Ives’ Webster Dictionary and Home Reference Library. Those are only the unabridged. I own more than two dozen, total, ranging from the World Book two-volume to a first edition American Heritage Dictionary to the Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Desk Dictionary and the Pocket Oxford Dictionary of American English. Add to that several slang dictionaries, specialty dictionaries, two reverse dictionaries, and a number of collections of obscure or archaic words and you might get the impression I like language. (And don’t get me started on my encyclopedia collection…)

In case it isn’t obvious, I’m also a packrat (son of packrats, grandson of packrats, great-grandson of packrats — it probably goes back even further than that).