The Ordinary World

    I was born in Trenton, NJ , in the heart of Chambersburg, the Italian section of town. My father was a barber and my mother, a State employee, who also taught me to jitter bug at the tender age of four. We loved to dance in the living room while watching American Bandstand. Hardly star material, I was driven nonetheless. The product of a Catholic School education, I learned the basics, and took for granted that I would be successful doing something, even if it entailed cutting hair. Given my wonderful family and great friends, I sailed through my grammar and high school years doing well and having fun. It helped to live an hour from the shore, New York City and Philadelphia.
    My love of reading dates back to my childhood when I would borrow at least four books from the library every week. During the summer, I would sit in the house and read, until my mother, totally frustrated, would send me outside to play and lock me out. I always found my way back in.
    Following high school, I went to Rutgers University to find my career path. After four years as a psychology major, I decided I liked political science better. So I worked in New York City as a paralegal. Don't ask how one led to the other — it just did.

Call to Adventure

    I loved working in New York. I had a job that I adored at a huge law firm on Park Avenue, and a fabulous city at my feet to explore. Before long, I moved into Manhattan — a lifelong dream ever since "That Girl" was on TV. After fours years of working with lawyers from the top law schools, I decided, "I could do that." Refusing to leave NYC, I went to Fordham University School of Law, located at Lincoln Center.
    I'm one of the few people I know who loved law school. Perhaps it was because I had taken four years off from school and now knew what I wanted to do. Or maybe because I never thought I could do it, and there I was. In any event, I learned to think like a lawyer, write like a lawyer, and speak like a lawyer, all while living like a pauper in the city of my dreams.
    Living in the City, albeit on a tight budget, allowed me to indulge my love of ballet, art museums and theater. Did you know that you could walk into a theater after intermission and no one checks your ticket? I enjoyed the second half of many plays as well as ballets.
    Up until this point, I must confess, that I hated to write. In every English and writing class I dreaded trying to be creative. As a friend from law school so aptly put it, "The reason why we're here is because we don't have a creative bone in our bodies." I agreed.
    Despite my dislike of writing, I somehow made it onto the Fordham International Law Journal. Writing legal articles and writing creatively are very different, and I found that I not only could write legalese, but loved it. To this day, I look forward to writing Appellate briefs meant to inform and persuade.
    My first published article appears in Volume 5 of the Fordham International Law Journal, entitled "In re Mackin: Is the Application of the Political Offense Exception an Extradition Issue for the Judicial or Executive Branch?" I would advise you against reading it, for you will surely fall asleep.

Crossing the First Threshold

After law school, I decided to come back home to work. I wanted to be a big fish in a small sea rather than the other way around. My decision was the right one. I've been at my current law firm since I graduated, over twenty years ago. My area of practice is divorce, and while emotions run high and clients are living through the worst time of their lives, I find the practice very satisfying. I have added mediation to my repertoire, which is a much more civil way of dealing with issues in divorce, and I believe it to be the wave of the future.

Second Call to Adventure

As I stated before, I love to read. Every night, I would pick up a novel and enter into someone else's world until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I remember vividly, one night, saying to myself, "I could do this." Sound familiar? I told my husband who encouraged me to try it. I learned very quickly that it's not as easy as a reader may think. But I took a computer class, joined New Jersey Romance Writers and signed up for a continuing legal education seminar entitled "How to Write your Book in Fourteen Days." I had begun my writing career.

Crossing the Second Threshold

So, in addition to practicing law and raising two daughters, I've been working towards my second career for the past seven years. Memoranda of Law and Legal Briefs, although fascinating, pale in comparison to writing romance/women's fiction. So how does one transition from divorce lawyer by day to romance writer by night? That's the beauty of having two distinct passions. And one that fuels the other.
They say "write what you know." Three of my four completed manuscripts have a lawyer as the heroine and many of my characters are based on friends and acquaintances. I have also chosen settings that I love; the Jersey shore (Weekend Diaries), the Florida Keys (Island Fever), Florence, Italy (Conflicts of Interest) and New York City (Leap of Faith).

Tests, Allies & Enemies