Welcome back to another edition of the Merry Go Round Blog Tour.  This month we’re discussing what makes us unique as a writer.  Why don’t we discuss what make me not unique as a writer?  As in the problems slush pile readers endure.  I have a terrible tendency toward narrative.  I spend a lot of time in my character’s heads.  I don’t do conflict very well.

We got that out of the way.  What do I do well?  I write a technically correct sentence with proper spelling and punctuation — most of the time.  My readers will find occasional errors in this area, but it’s not common.  I believe I create interesting, even compelling characters.  When people read my work, they like my characters.  That’s two of the three main things a writer needs to do.  Story.  I need a lot of work on story.

We could examine what makes me unique as a person, and perhaps that might contribute to what uniqueness I have available to bring to my writing.  I was born in Iowa, graduated from high school in Ohio, attended Ohio State University for a year as a pre-veterinary medicine student, made toy drums for a brief period of time, lived in a small cabin in the woods heated by a coal stove with no running water (but I did have electricity and a telephone), and entered the military for a chance at resuming my education. I served in an career field typically populated by men and resumed my pursuit of a college degree during my off-duty hours. Seven institutions later, I earned my undergraduate degree as well as three associates’ degrees.  I began working on my masters’ but was selected for officer training school, so I abandoned that.  Once I earned my commission and reported in to my first commissioned duty station, I resumed my graduate studies and completed them in one year. Then I began some post-graduate work and had completed all but the final project for my Educational Specialist degree (a mid-way degree between a masters and a doctorate) in Education Administration.  I served twenty-eight years in the United States Air Force, and half of those years were spent in an educational setting as an educator or an administrator. Three years was spent supporting the intercontinental ballistic missile community.  One quarter was spent supporting the intelligence community.  Three years was spent as the US representative to a national and international standards body.  The time left over was spent in training and various schools or deployed to the Middle East. I completely retired from working for someone else at age 47 and a half. I’ve spent my retired years with my husband (we were geographically separated for the first fourteen years of our marriage), and we’re working on restoring and maintaining our various properties.  We enjoy traveling a few weeks out of the year. Oh, and I’ve been adopted by cats.

I have been fascinated by polar bears since I was about thirteen.  Before that, I was obsessed with wanting a monkey (my parents wisely plied me with plush monkeys).

My characters are anthropomorphic polar bears, secret cyber warriors, wannabe terrorists, lost and disgruntled college students, fifty-something friends being reunited after thirty-five years, small town residents battling a corrupt over-entitled town leader, and, most recently, a woman turning a ghost town into a cat rescue sanctuary.  I’m looking at what it’s like to live among humans as a non-human entity, what a group of cyber warriors might do to protect the country, why someone might want to inflict terror, single fatherhood and a love gone wrong, the unexpected turns our lives take, small town interactions, and taking care of those who are unable to care for themselves.  So far, those are the themes that interest me.  I’m attempting to tell the stories in a manner that will interest someone else, too. So far, I feel as if I’m falling far short. That’s a common feeling among writers.  I need to find out if the feeling has any basis in fact.