Like a bird on the wire …
I have tried in my way to be free.
by the other Leonard Cohen, 1968
About Paula
If you read this blog, you'll learn possibly more than you wanted to know about my long and interesting life. Wherever I went -- Washington DC in the 1960s and 1970s, New York in the 1980s and 1990s, New England in the 2000s -- I was fortunate enough to get right smack in the middle of things that mattered, whether I wanted to be or not.
Frankly, I could have done without some of the "interesting" things that happened to me, especially the plane crash and the robbery I walked in on. But, I'm getting ahead of myself and don't want to spoil a good story.
Today, I live in a rural area, where I work from a home office as a freelance writer. Several afternoons a week, I work at an underfunded middle school as a volunteer librarian. There's little I won't do to make sure tomorrow's adults can read!
When I was very young, I knew in my bones I would never stoop to do journalism, but would make my mark as a poet. Right! By the time I was 30, I would have killed for a newswriting job, but the opportunity didn't present itself until much later. Fortunately, I wasn't forced to do anything rash to get an assignment. So far, so good.
Over the past 30 years, I've published just about every type of writing, from poetry to non-fiction books to news for tech trade magazines. Today, I write features for my local newspaper and occasionally for magazines, both paper and electronic. I love feature writing, perhaps because I learn so much while I'm reporting out a story.
My three marriages were spread over many years, which meant I raised my son (from marriage #1, to a drummer!) alone. Today, he and his beautiful wife are raising their own darling baby boy.
I was lucky enough to inherit three bright and loving grown stepchildren -- two with terrific spouses -- when I married my current husband in 2003. His children have given us two bright and lively grandchildren. We're really blessed in the grandbaby department.
Husband Dave devotes his energies to keeping the lights on in several sparsely populated counties, as a licensed electrician. The two of us like to sing, sometimes together, sometimes not. We spend many weekday mornings at a YMCA fending off old age, and weekends at our cabin in the woods, avoiding bears. All in all, we enjoy a wonderful life.
