I enjoy deep-sea fishing off Islamorada in Key West, fly fishing and navigating four and five rapids on the Rogue River in Oregon. I snorkel, swim and kayak the world over: Cozumel, Black Water Swamp (South Carolina),Everglades, Cabo San Lucas, and in and around the largest sea caves in the world (off the California Coast). I manage a fruit orchard and brewauthentic Italian limoncello and orangcello.

I published The Man and the Mountain:Sydney Laurence’s Mt. McKinleywhen my father’s manuscript was found by KAKM-TV in Anchorage,Alaska, in preparation for a documentary on the painter. My father was Laurence’s only apprentice. Half of the first printing of 2200 run was sold in one day.

With a UCLA BA in history and University of La Verne’s MA in communications, I’ve had careers in secondary and college education, professional journalism, and as a professional hospital market communications manager and fund development director. I’m a published journalist in more than 15 publications including city and life style magazines (Élan, La Verne and Redlands City Magazines), medical and health publications, business journals, specialty newspaper and university institute newsletters. I’ve provided press releases with photos and captions to media contacts resulting in a million-person readership in any one-month over the last 30 years. I met and publicized Nancy Reagan and Peter Ueberroth hospital fundraisers at Hoag Hospital Foundation, Newport Beach, CA.

I earned a certificate in fiction writing from the prestigious UCLA Writer’s Program, placed third with an excerpt of my debut thriller The Don’s Wife in a 2011 Mystery Writer’s of America Helen McCloyScholarship Contest. I'm currently writing the sequel Lady Don.

Marrying into an immigrant Sicilian American family fueled the idea behind The Don’s Wife. The culture shock of how old world customs and business practices span the oceans and generations to influence modern American immigrant family life is one of its themes as is the power of a strong woman.

“When the California wine industry clashes with the California Mafia, Sarina is caught between her boss, her husband, and her conscience. When an intriguing Russian wine collector complicates her life, and Sarina is betrayed, she decides to do it her way and take no prisoners, in this sexy, balls to the wall thriller.” -- Lynn Hightower, author THE PIPER