My creative life
From early childhood, when I insisted on integrating the Catholic School Boys' Playground, I've been a feminist. (The nuns were not happy.) Using my pen, I've written scholarly, mass market books, and articles concerning inequalities of power, gender, race, and class. I first explored these themes while a social researcher at Johns Hopkins University. See my Scholarly page for some of that work.
At Sonoma State University, when my students demanded more material on women's history, I shifted my research to biographies. I was fascinated by the lives of women connected to noted men. Living near Jack London State Historic Park, I discovered London's second wife Charmian Kittredge. Then I examined several generations of women in two prominent families: Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. Returning to Jack London, I explored all the women connected to him: mother, stepsister, wives, friends. No surprise, I co-edit london.sonoma.edu, based at Sonoma State University, called Jack London Online, with Roy Tennant, noted digital librarian.
My latest essay is "Aesthetics, Androgyny, and Identity: Charmian Kittredge London’s Artful Life," for Women's Studies. Find a copy of this and my other London scholarship on my London Articles page.
My first fiction book is Slanderley: Love and Death in Cornwall. I wrote this spoof in my twenties but expanded and published it recently. It is solely to entertain. http://tiny.cc/li4vdy
I've been tracking my Czech/Hungarian ancestry for many years in an attempt to understand my extended family better. Of late, I have found ancestors in 19th and 18th century censuses, including the requirements of serfdom for the Hungarian laws in the 1700s. More on this on the Gypsy page. I also serve on the Sonoma-Tokaj Sister City Committee.
Other volunteer activities include managing the websites for The Sitting Room: A Community Library and Renaissance Singers Retreat.
When not writing, I am playing Ubass, percussion, or sing with groups. Under COVID, I have returned to the piano. It took a while to get my skills back, but one day, Voila, muscle memory popped in.
At Sonoma State University, when my students demanded more material on women's history, I shifted my research to biographies. I was fascinated by the lives of women connected to noted men. Living near Jack London State Historic Park, I discovered London's second wife Charmian Kittredge. Then I examined several generations of women in two prominent families: Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. Returning to Jack London, I explored all the women connected to him: mother, stepsister, wives, friends. No surprise, I co-edit london.sonoma.edu, based at Sonoma State University, called Jack London Online, with Roy Tennant, noted digital librarian.
My latest essay is "Aesthetics, Androgyny, and Identity: Charmian Kittredge London’s Artful Life," for Women's Studies. Find a copy of this and my other London scholarship on my London Articles page.
My first fiction book is Slanderley: Love and Death in Cornwall. I wrote this spoof in my twenties but expanded and published it recently. It is solely to entertain. http://tiny.cc/li4vdy
I've been tracking my Czech/Hungarian ancestry for many years in an attempt to understand my extended family better. Of late, I have found ancestors in 19th and 18th century censuses, including the requirements of serfdom for the Hungarian laws in the 1700s. More on this on the Gypsy page. I also serve on the Sonoma-Tokaj Sister City Committee.
Other volunteer activities include managing the websites for The Sitting Room: A Community Library and Renaissance Singers Retreat.
When not writing, I am playing Ubass, percussion, or sing with groups. Under COVID, I have returned to the piano. It took a while to get my skills back, but one day, Voila, muscle memory popped in.
E-mail is the best way to contact me.
