About the Author
My high school diaries—seven spiral-bound volumes of teen-age drama in emerald green ink—gave me early practice in putting words on paper other than those commanded by teachers and parents. I majored in French and Religion at Dickinson College and then, ten years later, tacked on a Masters in Business Administration at the College of William and Mary to prove to the world (and myself) that I can do numbers. During my working career, creative and personal writing went on hiatus while I wrote grants, proposals, manuals and specifications for a series of research, academic and commercial organizations.
Along the way, I founded the Women in Business Program at the College of William and Mary, earned a private pilot’s license, designed my house, created a program on Women in China for cable TV and took some award-winning photographs. I’ve also been active in community and church activities, including the United Way and The Friends of Green Spring.
When I started to think about retirement, a colleague advised me to “be sure you are retiring to something, not from something.” My first goal in retirement was to do something with 42 years of letters from my best friend, Karen Holman, who abandoned the comforts of the East Coast when she was 28 and decamped—sight unseen—to a remote ranch outside Laramie, Wyoming. So far, both my short story, “Hotshot Hannah,” and a poem, “On Friendship,” have won awards in local writing contests, and "Cold Fear" was published in the Virginia Writers Club Centennial Anthology. I have also been gratified to win awards and have other, non-Karen stories selected for publication in several anthologies.
I grew up in Princeton, NJ, and have lived in Virginia since 1976. I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to read anything I have written, and welcome your comments. Write to me at leverenzwrite@gmail.com
