With a twist - A memoir about drowning in spirits
How did I get here?
I'm a nonfiction writer
What am I working on?
At my high school senior banquet, I won the award for Outstanding Student in English. Imagine my surprise. Being a writer wasn't on my radar. I was going to be a veterinarian. After struggling through 19 credits in chemistry in college, I took a journalism class. It ignited an excitement I never had for the sciences. At 63, I took a writi
At my high school senior banquet, I won the award for Outstanding Student in English. Imagine my surprise. Being a writer wasn't on my radar. I was going to be a veterinarian. After struggling through 19 credits in chemistry in college, I took a journalism class. It ignited an excitement I never had for the sciences. At 63, I took a writing class and two workshops with UW-Madison Continuing Studies. In 2022, I won Honorable Mention for "Dead Body One" in the Hal Prize literary magazine, 8142 Review. I've had articles published in Chicago Home and Garden, Corporate Report, Wisconsin Trails, Lake Michigan Travel Guide and Door County Living. For two years, I was a regular contributor to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One of my feature stories won first place in a national contest. I self-published my first book, Tales from the Peninsula. Cheers to more!
What am I working on?
I'm a nonfiction writer
What am I working on?
I'm currently finishing my memoir about my childhood.
My family’s drunkenness was so unbelievably sad, my college boyfriend wrote a Twilight Zone episode called Kentucky Rye. He thought someone in our family sold their soul to the devil. That would be my dad, a bartender who became the county sheriff, fitting for the 10th drunkest count
I'm currently finishing my memoir about my childhood.
My family’s drunkenness was so unbelievably sad, my college boyfriend wrote a Twilight Zone episode called Kentucky Rye. He thought someone in our family sold their soul to the devil. That would be my dad, a bartender who became the county sheriff, fitting for the 10th drunkest county in the U.S.
I'm also trying to raise awareness for preventative care for children of parents with alcohol abuse disorder by reading research studies and writing essays on the topic.
Across the U.S., alcohol deaths have doubled in the last two decades. My recent op-eds in the Chicago-Tribune and Journal/Sentinel highlight the societal cost of alcoholism.
I'm a nonfiction writer
I'm a nonfiction writer
I'm a nonfiction writer
Growing up in a tavern attached to my house, by age ten I knew how to mix a perfect martini and top a beer with the correct amount of foam. Normal life skills of a child of alcoholics.
I spent my career working in public relations - mainly in issues and crisis management. One might say I spent my childhood in training.
My parents were dr
Growing up in a tavern attached to my house, by age ten I knew how to mix a perfect martini and top a beer with the correct amount of foam. Normal life skills of a child of alcoholics.
I spent my career working in public relations - mainly in issues and crisis management. One might say I spent my childhood in training.
My parents were drunks. I'm not. What a difference a choice makes in the game of life.
When I mentioned my memoir to someone, she replied, "But didn't we all have bad childhoods?"
My childhood inspires me to hang on tight to my loved ones, help children in the same situation and write about it all.
I live with my husband and two 100- pound, black Mastadors in the hills of Southwest Wisconsin.
The Osman Club
