Creating fiction, one word at a time.
A glimpse into Denise's life:
Denise lives in the great Southwest, where it’s a ‘dry heat’. Oftentimes, it’s the place otherwise known as Hell, but Hell may be cooler. Actually, she's recently decided to Hades with Phoenix, it's up north she goes, and that's where she lives now. She’s lived in various parts of Arizona, California, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Massachusetts and even brief stints in Texas, Hawaii, and Louisiana. Currently single, she lives with her diva Shih Tzu. Or is that, a Shih Tzu named Diva? Although in Arizona now, her heart seems to be pulling her north, perhaps to the Pacific Northwest, but more than likely to Anchorage, Alaska.
As careers go, she’s a nurse. It pays the bills and feeds her book addictions. However, recently she's been having some internal discussion and may consider getting her MSN and MBA and either merge into nursing administration or become a nurse practitioner, working with diabetic and/or cardiac patients.
Her 'me' time includes playing with the puppy and reading. Voraciously. She doesn’t prefer to limit herself to just one genre and reads everything from Thrillers to Christian Thrillers and everything in between. Mysteries, Romances, the backs of cereal boxes. She is picky about what she enjoys even though it spans multiple genres. A good book must capture her attention, and keep it, with riveting conflict, a plot that moves and magnetic characters who actually grow during the story.
When she doesn’t have her nose in a book, or her fingers on a computer keyboard, she also enjoys cooking and attempting new recipes often.
What else does Denise love? Music. Oh yes. Having grown up with music in her life, again she can’t be pinned down to one genre. That’d be too boring. She listens to everything. DuranDuran, Bryan Ferry, Boney James, Chicane (you have to listen to them!), Brian McKnight, Enigma, Dana Glover, and who could forget Joss Stone? And that's just the secular stuff. There's a whole melange of Christian music from rock to gospel on her iPod, with favs like Tom Booth, Kathy Troccoli and Michael English. She also has a large repertoire of audiobooks so she can listen to books while driving or working around the house. You can find her relaxing to Gregorian Chant or the LOTR soundtrack, with the lights down low and incense in the burner.
She’s not big on television but has been known to watch Supernatural and Fringe (although she's drastically cut back her TV time and thanks to the invention of the DVR she has been known to keep shows on there for days before deciding to flip on the tube).
She considers herself to be quite spiritual. She grew up Roman Catholic, but never content to simply go to church, she began reading about what they really believe as a Church body. Discovering that what's on paper as a belief and what's lived in the local parish is sometimes vastly different she began exploring her faith as a reality. After months of searching, she discovered the Eastern arm of the Catholic Church and their many rites. Living, however, in northern Arizona where there were none of these churches, she discovered a small Eastern Orthodox Church that vastly enlarged her heart. She came to the realization that this faith is what she had been searching for her entire life, and for the first time in her spiritual life, she felt home. While more than happy to discuss her faith journey with family, friends and colleagues, she's not the type to evangelize with words like a used car salesman. Her spiritual journey is intensely personal and respects the fact that it is for others as well.