My love for reading developed early, I was reading books by the age of three. When I was five, I read four books from L. Frank Baum's OZ series gifted to me by my grandmother. I looked those stories and was captivated by the descriptive writing and storytelling. At that age, I knew that I wanted to be a writer too. I started writing poetry and little stories about people I knew.  It's amazing that decades later I would work at MGM Studios where The Wizard of Oz film was produced.

This book began from posts I shared on Facebook privately with my family and friends about my dream trip to France. They followed my daily exploits and suggested that I write a book about my fun, enlightening, and solo experience about visiting and exploring each of those six French cities.  So, I did compile those posts to write this book. In doing so, I felt my story could be impactful and inspire other people to take the plunge who also had a similar dream about living abroad.

Six French Cities is a deeply personal travel memoir about my solo quest through France by train with my dog Colonel. This story stems from a decades old dream to live in France. On this journey I was searching for the most ideal small French city in which to live when I retired.  After years of longing, this journey became an unexpected experience of clarity and self-discovery while adapting to French culture and gaining a real sense of belonging. 

Yes, this book is part of a series. When I began writing this book about the journey to reach my dream, I realized there was too much material for just one book. So, I decided to separate my two travel segments (scouting and then moving) into a series. Six French Cities is the first book published in my French Adventure series about scouting those cities and finding my ideal one. My second book, A Boomer in Bordeaux, is about moving to and living in France during my first year of residency. This second book is planned for release in Fall of 2026. Book three (untitled) will be about my visiting, exploring, and learning about the history and traditions of other medieval cities throughout France, which I plan to publish in the winter of 2027. 

It took me approximately ten months to compile the posts, write my back story, add more content, proofread line by line, resolve computer issues that disrupted my pre-launch schedule, and then edit five drafts. Determined to meet my deadline, I did not want to postphone or move my launch date up by a few days or weeks due to the technical computer issues that developed while writing. Luckily, I completed every element of this book and published it just two days before my January 6, 2026 launch date. 

Currently, I’m writing non-fiction narratives (two more books in this French Adventure Series). While still in Los Angeles I had begun writing my Hollywood Memoir about how I broke into the entertainment industry without any contacts, my varied roles, the people I worked, and the high profile individuals I met duirng my long career. Additionally, I have written poetry, short fiction, blogs, manuals, and essays. Waiting in the wings are outlines of several short stories and two suspenseful novel ideas that I tinker with off and on with plans to complete. 

I have held numerous jobs over the years due to my ability to learn my working roles quickly. Often I needed constant stimulation at the work or I would become bored and then seek out new challenges and opportunities. My focus was on becoming a writer and producer. I have held many corporate administrative positions as well as creative coordinator, writer, and producer roles. I worked for a while as a Talent and Literary Agent, a Story Editor, and Story analyst reading screenplays and manuscripts for production executives. I've worked in both TV and Film Production assisting writers, producers, directors, and studio executives at Hollywood studios for over five decades before retiring in 2024. In addition, due to my passion for travel, simultaneously while working in entertainment, I owned and operated two different homebased luxury travel agencies for over two decades before closing that travel business to pursue my dream of moving to France. As a travel expert, I have traveled extensively to four Continents and visited many cities in a variety of countries.

I do a lot of extensive research whether I am writing non-fiction or fiction, because I always want to give readers some historical facts woven into my stories even within my fictional ones.  Research helps me better understand places, people, and cultures which is invaluable for indepth travel writing.

My goal was to share this intentional journey to follow a dream and my experieces through France with others who may be thinking about relocating abroad.  Also to convey my reasons for taking this trip and why it mattered so much to me. I was hoping to inspire those with a similar dream to take the big steps forward. I wanted to show that it's never too late to pursue one's dreams. I feel I have achieved those goals in writing this book. 

I am currently working on book two of this French Adventure Series, A Boomer in Bordeaux which continues six months later after returing from my scouting trip. It begins with me retiring and then preparing to relocate to France. This second memoir illustrates what I had to do before and after arriving France. How I quickly adapted to the French lifestyle, lived my new life, quickly made new friends (expats and native French), and navigated the French govenment systems during my first full year of residency in the lovely city of Bordeaux.