List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.

1. A teacher of English for grade school students. It’d be fun to influence young minds. Plus, I really enjoy reading so it’s no brainer.

2. Working in a food pantry feeding the poor. I’ve done it before & really liked it. As it makes a difference in people’s day to day lives.

3. Opening a literary café with focus on open mic readings & reading book groups. With excellent coffee of course!

What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

My Farmor who lived to be 103 was a power house. Not only was she a teacher in her town up North but before WWII broke out she traveled to Germany for what she always told us was “vacation.”

She had an album of her trip with girlfriends down to Germany prior to the war breaking out. She was stunning in her 20’s & a real catch. But I think she was on assignment from the government. Everyone in Europe knew how dangerous Germany had become & she traveled to the belly of the beast, Berlin & Frankfurt.

She’d often take out that album & show us grandkids all the flags that were hanging in Berlin & Frankfurt. I think she was so beautiful the government thought she could con her way out of a situation if it became dangerous. Something she in fact did during the war & the occupation when my grandparents had Nazi soldiers living with them.

She battered her eyelashes & spoke fluent German so the soldiers would look the other way. She was in the Resistance & came to my grade school once to talk about what that was like. They used anything to disguise their messages to one another & my grandfather was honored by the King after the war with a medal, however we were never able to find out for what. My guess is that it had to do with him smuggling people to Sweden during the war, as he knew the mountains better than the soldiers. He also knew all the positions they were in & managed to circumvent them.

I’m proud of my heritage for this reason & you can still find remnants of where the soldiers were in the mountains by her town.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

In college I was reading some books & I really enjoyed them. At the conclusion of the series the author asked people to give him feedback & write him. This was the late 1990s & very few people had the web or internet.

I wrote him a quick note & he wrote back & told me to follow my passion, namely writing. It was a really tough part of my life & his response meant the world to me.

By writing back & telling me to pursue my writing made a huge impact on my life. I still have his postcard somewhere.