Grew up in Baltimore County. Father was a radio engineer at the local Top 40 station. That was cool. My mom went back to college during the Vietnam War at the height of the feminist revolution. Both parents were very influential in my life, as was my older brother, who taught me how to throw a perfect spiral. I was a tomboy growing up, and followed an interest in the technical side of filmmaking to a degree in film. I pursued the field in Baltimore, then moved to Los Angeles in 1981, where I entered the camera union’s training course and began working in Hollywood in 1982.

The infamous "Scarface" was my first big union job and I worked steadily in film and television through 1989, when I got married and moved back to Baltimore. I worked in computer graphics while I was married and returned to camera assisting after my divorce. "Gettysburg" (1992) got me back in the business and I worked steadily through 1999, including two John Waters films and six seasons on “Homicide: Life on the Street."

I wrote my first novel, "Shadow Warrior, Tale of the Black Archer," after taking a fiction-writing course in 1996 at the local community college. Much of the book, completed in 1997, was written on the set of “Homicide” in between takes on a memo pad tucked in my back pocket.

I quit “Homicide” and began writing professionally in 1999. The first book had received a measure of interest, but no takers. Then I started writing Brenda Bullit.

I joined the Community Times in May of 1999 and worked my way up from part-time to full-time reporter. I love the job and get to write about everything: politics, social issues, education, even the crime reports....