Introducing...ME!!!!

For some reason, I feel like Saliva's "Ladies & Gentlemen" needs to be playing here.

Welcome folks to my inaugural blog posting. I started this blog as a way to communicate with my students outside of class as well as my friends and family. In class, I am always going off on crazy tangents- something I really don't have time to do considering the amount of work we should be covering in lecture- so I figured I would start this blog to discuss crazy history stories, all sorts of pop culture stuff and, well, anything else that I find interesting.

Just to let you know a bit about me... I am a professor of history (American and Western Civ) at colleges in middle Tennessee and central Georgia (and before you ask, yes I do drive to both of them. It's a killer, but in this economy, I'm glad to have a job). I absolutely love my job. I get paid to tell stories, TRUE STORIES!!! Hollywood can't make up half of the stuff I get to talk about. To me, nothing is more fun than to dig up the most insane stories about people in the past. They all have them and, for some reason, it always makes me feel closer to those people when I find out that they were just as crazy as I am.

This love of telling stories sort of parlayed itself into writing. That has become my new passion. When I'm not working up class lectures or with my nose stuck in a book or the TV, I'm writing. At this point, I have finished my first novel, Destiny. It's a young adult novel about Alexandra Montgomery. Alexandra is a certifiable genius whose archaeologist father has an Indiana Jones-type reputation. Her whole world gets turned upside down when she discovers her father is actually a spy for the government, searching for historical artifacts that have real or perceived power. She decides that she's going to help him with his job, even if it means getting herself killed. At the same time, Alexandra finds herself drawn to her father's new assistant, William. When Alexandra's father is kidnapped, she and William have to work together to save him from a group of religious fanatics who are out to take over the world.

In addition to Destiny, I am also working on its sequel, Legacy, a 5-part series of middle grades/young adult stories about the Greek goddesses and an adult murder mystery. In case you can't tell, I REALLY love to write. Now if I could just get an agent notice me and help me take my stuff to the next step...getting my books on the shelves. Do you know how wonderful it would be to walk into Barnes & Noble and see one of my books out there for people to read? I would probably sit down in the floor and cry like a baby.

On top of teaching and writing, I'm also a mother. My daughter is more than just my child. She's like my sister and my best friend, my biggest critic and staunchest ally, all rolled into one. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. My friend Dawn always calls us the Gilmore Girls. Move that show from New England to Tennessee and you've got us.

So...enough about me. Add your own post to tell me all about you!