I'm a single Boomer mom with a daughter in college, age almost 21 -- although I swear she just started pre-school a couple of years ago. I was 39 when she was born, so she was our miracle baby.

Being a mom is the one thing I am most proud of, which still surprises me, because I thought I was too selfish to be a mother by the time I finally got pregnant. I only wish I had the same relationship with my own mother as I have with my daughter.

I am a writer, singer, actress and educator. Theatre, especially musical theatre, has always been my first love. As the voice ages and the number of roles available for "women of a certain" age has dwindled, I find there is still on-stage work I can do, and those roles so far have been choice:

• Mrs. Potts the teapot in "Beauty and the Beast" (twice)
• Mother Superior in "Nuncrackers" and "Nunsense II"
• Clemma in Neil Simon's "Proposals" (twice)
• Flo in "Odd Couple - Female Version"
• Mae in "Bye Bye Birdie" (she's the guilt trip queen!)

My blog for writers at The Story Ideas Virtuoso has a modest following after two years and I have two ebooks on finding story ideas that I will be selling eventually at FindStoryIdeas.com. Meanwhile, I'm giving out excerpts.

Having to re-invent myself in 2000 at age 51 when I became a single mom (not by choice) was challenging, to put it mildly. Then when I suddenly lost my fulltime income due to down-sizing in 2005, I went into a tailspin of clinical depression. Without my daughter to live for (because I certainly didn't feel my own life was worth living at the time) I might not be here today. I'm also a notorious coward, so maybe I wouldn't have done anything tragically foolish anyway.

Regardless, I have been (mostly) depression free for the past three years and quite happy to be alive, even as I struggle financially just to survive. I'm an optimist by nature, so I keep on going like the Energizer(R) bunny.

I have three novels moldering away on my hard drive that I'm getting ready to whip into shape and get "out there" since I heard that editors are looking for 50+ women writers. Finally I'm the right age for something! LOL

I love Boomers, reminiscing, philosophizing, making music (just gimme a mic) and talking about spiritual matters. My dream is to be a part of a team like "Women of Faith" and "Women of Joy" who touch women's lives and make a difference, inspiring them to action -- in short, to give them hope, plus tools they can use to get themselves out of whatever bondage they feel they are in.

Oh, yes. And I'm, well, rather long-winded sometimes. I guess it's time to just...stop.