Utenteglynes

I collect old books ... not necessarily 'classics', but any old and odd books ... mysteries especially, children's books, and anything clever or funny. My favorite rainy-day pasttime is cruising thrift shops, looking for must-haves. My most fun find: Volume 1 of a 2-volume mystery anthology from the 1940s ... then 18 months later, in a different state altogether, coming across Volume 2! (I would love to tell you that the same person's name was written on the fly sheets of both volumes, but alas ....) Among my most beloved treasures are schoolbooks used by my grandparents in the 1800's (my grandma's margin-doodling about what she was up to with her girlfriends is just priceless!); and a number of the McGuffy's Readers that my mom used to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in Iowa around 1925.

I credit my parents with nurturing my love of books and ready, by signing me up for a book club when I was 3, and springing for the 12-volume set of story collections that came with the Collier's Encyclopedia! Not trusting either of them to give a comprehensive reading, I taught myself to read before entering kindergarten, and I haven't stopped since. 12 books at a time from my local library, plus my own rather sizable collection. And from reading less than stellar works, I decided to act upon my gut feeling that "I could've written it better than that!" I've had two short stories in print, appeared in one of the "Dark and Stormy Night" books that resulted from the annual Bulwer Lytton Contest ('worst opening sentence from the worst novel never written'); and the autobiography is in the works.
And when I'm not reading or writing, I'm a rock-n-roll & blues drummer ("Middle Aged Broads Still Rock!!"), and while I love riding on the back of my hubby's motorcycle, plan to get my own ride next Spring. Hence, the autobiography! 8-)