I was born and raised in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. Upon high school graduation in 1965, I took a train to New York City where I studied Fashion Merchandising and took courses in writing poetry and worked at a Lutheran church in East New York, Brooklyn. The 1960s was a turbulant decade and I loved being a part of the anti-war movement and then Back to the Land. I moved to Idaho in 1970 -- met my family at my grandfather's estate for the summer -- met and married a local cattle rancher. Four children. during this time I also started, published, printed, a small press magazine of Western American literature called "The Redneck Review of Literature." It developed national recognition and is archived at Boise State University library. Divorced in 1988. AA College of Southern Idaho, BA Marquette University, MA Idaho State University. Worked as a police dispatcher, then a full-time reporter and columnist for an Idaho daily newspaper. Am now an English instructor at ISU, job threatened by cutbacks.

How did you get to where you are now?

Where am I? If the question means Idaho, I am here because of my father's family's history and my children and grandchildren live close-by. If the question means my job (career?) then returning to university after my divorce gave me credentials to teach lower division courses at Idaho State University. I own my own little house and vegetable garden, and spend my free time spinning/weaving, playing old standards on the piano, cooking for friends and family, just being . . .

How do you see yourself differently now than you did 10 years ago?

I am more concerned about health than I was 10 years ago since arthritis is eroding me somewhat. I have had a hip replacement. I no longer feel particularly ambitious in a career sense. I just want to get by, have enough income to cover basics and spend time with friends and grandkids. I get a lot of satisfaction from "turning straw into gold" with my wheel and looms.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope I am still walking upright and picking lettuce from my garden for supper with my friends.

Relax. Don't let them push you around. You're smarter than they are and that will pay off eventually.

Virginia and Leonard Woolf for starting Hogarth Press and helping me realize that I can have my own press as well, and I did for 20 years. Virginia's diaries are wonderful.

Bloomsbury, Paris in the 20s. Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog. A funny TV show from the 1960s, I think it was called "It's a Man's World" that only ran for one season. A female artist character who drove a vintage car, made mobiles, and drew a picture of a tree with its roots that worked right side up and upside down -- images of her free independent life are still with me.

Cantankerous Edward Abbey for encouraging my publishing venture. I miss him.