Her Biography
Though I have lived many places through out the United States, and now live in Texas, I am a native of Phoenix, Arizona. Thus is most likely the reason for my love of turquoise, Native American jewelry, and citrus. One can not live in the Southwest and not appreciate such things. And there is nothing like biting into a slice of a freshly peeled naval orange or downing a freshly squeezed glass of its juice.
As for my writing, it has always been a part of me. I have written stories and poems ever since I learned how to form letters with one of those big, fat pencils on large-lined paper in grade school. In Junior High, I used my Dad’s old typewriter to make the stories more official looking...more like the books I loved to read. In High School, I took a journalism class and loved it. The teacher told me that he loved my writing and thought I should pursue it, as did my English teacher. But after High School life took off in college and other things had to take priority. I eventually got married and had children, though I never stopped writing. I wrote for church newsletters, created brochures for small businesses, made up story after story to entertain my children, and continued to write in my journals. I also enjoyed delving into my family’s history and bringing their stories to life.
Then one day, while my children were still quite young, I braved sending in my first story to a magazine. I sent it to Family Circle. A few weeks later I received a rejection notice in the mail, along with a personal note from the editor thanking me for submitting my story, but it was “not what they needed at the time.” Not understanding the first thing about rejection slips, and that a personal note was a good thing, I was crushed, thinking I must be a horrible writer and decided never to send anything in again. That was in the ‘80’s. I continued to write and make up bedtime stories for my children, but went on to other things like running our small ranch and taking some more college courses.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, when my family encouraged me to try again to have my work published, that I decided to bite the bullet. Having learned a little more about the rejection process, I continued to send in article after article until, to my extreme excitement, I was finally accepted and published in a national magazine. Since then, I’ve had more articles published, plus two books; one for children, Pictures in the Paint, and a novel, The Austin Fires, which I am writing as a series. I am currently working on three other books.
I love many genres of books and am an avid reader, but my favorites, to both read and write, are mysteries and historical/mysteries. Though I do love a good children’s book as well. My other interests are paintings landscapes, traveling (see top photo), gardening, geocaching (see bottom photo), camping, working puzzles, and getting together with family and friends.
I hope you will check back from time to time and see what I’m up to, and what books aqnd novels I am in the middle of writing. If you have any comments, I’d love to hear from you at: saslack(at)gmail(dot)com
S. A. Slack
