I’ve always been in love with words. Reading and writing have allowed me to escape some of the most painful, boring and stressful moments of my life, even if just for a moment. By the time I got to university to study English literature I was like a kid in a candy store. I gorged on classical literature of the ages. 

 

Chaucer became a favorite, in large part because he wrote some pretty risqué prose six hundred years ago; The Wife of Bath's Tale even had me blushing! I learned that Shakespeare really does deserve the reverence society has bestowed upon him, even if his brand was a cooperative effort, and poets like Langston Hughes were windows to the soul of black urbanites who were discovering that their voices did indeed deserve to be heard.

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I love comedy in general, especially when it’s satiric. My favorite author is the bon-mot queen herself, Dorothy Parker, who was a successful, self-sufficient writer at a time when women had only just earned the right to vote.

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What else about me? I have a costly addiction to Starbucks. Our family communicates using movie lines. I have a puppy called Mrs. Dorothy Barker, although we call her Dottie because Mrs. Barker’s a mouthful. I lived in London and New York while I was in school, but feel most attached to Paris. Perhaps it's because I love the Lost Generation writers? If I win the lottery tomorrow, you can find me there, sipping a cafe au lait at an outdoor cafe on the Champs Elysees.

 

These days I live in Florida. I’m not sure it is a good idea because everything that’s weird in the world seems to happen here. I have grown kids. Over the years I’ve had moments when I loathed them, but I’ve always loved them. Of course, my grandkids can do absolutely anything and get away with it; I see it as payback for everything my kids made me endure during their teenage years.

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I want to be everyman, or at least attempt to be, through my prose. I like to change up my writing genre. I love short story writing, but there is a novel on my desk about a third of the way complete. It may never get finished, which will be a shame. Most importantly my calling is to write regardless of who’s there to read it, but it will be better for us both if you do!

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Come back and visit regularly, and feel free to leave me feedback whenever you’re in the mood,

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à bientôt!

 

Zoe

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