I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 9, 1957.  I moved around the country a lot as a child; my father worked for IBM when it really meant "I've Been Moved".

I met my husband in college, and we were married in 1976.  We had a glorious 18 months together before he died in an automobile accident.  

By profession, I am a technical writer for IBM.  I've been with IBM for 30 years, the majority of which I've been writing and updating books and help panels for software programs and hardware products.  I've also done a lot of graphics work, published product newsletters, and created Web sites.  Of all of it, I'd have to say the newsletters were the most fun.  

Children.  I have two boys and one girl.  I suppose they aren't your typical all-American kids, but then, that's because they're canine, not human.  (Shh!  Don't tell them that!)  Cooper (named for Gary Cooper), Ginger (named for Ginger Rogers), and Crosby (named for Bing Crosby) are tiny Toy Poodles and are so important (to themselves and their Mommy, anyway), they warrant their own link from my Web headers.

As you can probably tell from my kids' names, I enjoy old movies.  My absolute favorite is Random Harvest with Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson.  (You talk about a tear jerker!)  I also enjoy watching Jane Austen's work put to screen... but I prefer the BBC and A&E productions, not the Hollywood versions.  

As for books, my preference is romance novels.  Yes, many of them are the same thing over and over again, and yes, you (almost) always know how they're going to end.  But I still enjoy reading them.  My favorite author?  Julia Quinn.  She has such a fun writing style; it's easy to read, enjoyable, funny, and her stories always leave me wanting more.

Wondering about the "cruisemama" in cruisemama.com?  That's easy.  I love the water.  Being in it, on it, near it.  I take every cruise I possibly can afford (and some I can't!), trying to sail at least every other year.  My favorite cruise line is Celebrity.  Cruising is the most relaxing and enjoyable vacation you can imagine.  I don't drink, gamble, or sleep around... so what is there for me on a cruise ship?  Food, games, relaxation, music, food, hot tubs, massages, dancing, food, swimming pools, reading, being waited on hand and foot, food, shopping, excursions, gorgeous men in those great white uniforms, food, meeting new people, seeing shows, sleeping in, and so much more!  Oh, and did I mention the food?

Some people think "cruisemama" is because of my car; I drive a little white convertible (as you might have guessed from the caricature on my home page).  But that's really TopDownAva (which also happens to be my AIM screen name).  Back to the car:  if it's not raining and above 50 degrees, the top is down... and that's mighty often here in Florida!  

So how did I get started writing novels?  I began fantasizing and acting out new stories and plots for my favorite TV series when I was in the sixth grade.  Which show? Star Trek, of course!  I was desperately in love with Captain Kirk... er, Mr. Spock... no, it was Scotty... um, okay, I think it ended up being Dr. McCoy.  Who knows?  Anyway, I played out the love interests in their lives for several years.  

My fantasy acting, well hidden behind my bedroom door, continued through college and switched to dreams as an adult.  Of course, once they switched to dreams, I didn't have a whole lot of control over what happened.  Little did I know these fantasies and dreams were actually stories begging to be put down on paper.  And what's more, I had no inkling that anyone else in the world was plagued by this need to role play.

It wasn’t until my fascination with TV’s JAG series that I discovered others with the same predilection for thinking of new stories for the show’s characters.  Introduced to the fan fiction genre in 2001, I quickly became a rather well-known writer of JAG fan fiction on the Web.  I won numerous awards in the fandom for my stories, and I have a faithful following of readers.  In fact, when I decided to put a counter on the Web page for my stories, it shocked me how fast the numbers went up.  A hundred, five hundred, a thousand... in less than one month!  It's now well over 40,000.  That continues to amaze me.

My readers are wonderful people, and several of them have become very dear friends.  Over the years, many readers sent me notes thanking me for my stories and begging for more; very often they suggested that I should try my hand at writing novels.  So finally...

In 2005, after my favorite character (the Admiral... yes, the bald guy... what can I say?  I have a thing for bald men) left the JAG series, I gave up writing JAG fan fiction and decided to give women's fiction a go.  I published my first book, Sarah’s Rain, in August 2005, and my second book, Owen's Song, in January 2006.  My third book, Letters to a Sailor, should be available soon.

Happy reading!!