ABOUT ME- AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
If you know me, you know that I am keenly interested in family, books, travel, people and all their curious ways, history, gardening, long walks, and cats. You’ll see that I blog about some of these things. But here is a bit more about me.
EARLY YEARS I was reared on a farm in Western Oklahoma, not far from where The Black Alabaster Box takes place. My parents were farmers and school teachers. Growing up on a farm gave my brothers and me many opportunities to explore and use our imaginations. We learned about hard work, success and failure, kindness, and caring for the world around us.
Every summer my mother ordered a box of library books from the Oklahoma State Library Commission (now the Oklahoma State Department of Libraries). It was always a great day when the books came. As soon as we finished one box, she sent for another. Reading took us around the world. We had family story, too, where a good book was read aloud almost every night before bedtime.
TEACHER AND TEACHER EDUCATOR In college I studied to be a teacher. I taught just about all of the elementary school grades. It was valuable experience when I became a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York. There I taught men and women who were studying to be teachers, school principals, and to work in education-related jobs. I have worked with educators all over the world to support their efforts to provide quality education to children and young people.
AUTHOR AND TRAVELER Now I share my time between Baltimore and with my daughter and granddaughter in Stratford-upon-Avon, England where my daughter did a graduate program at the famous Shakespeare Institute. I’ve been lucky enough to work in many places around the world. What a wonderful world we live in! Below are some pictures taken in some of the places I’ve been lucky enough to visit.
Still, I think Bilbo Baggins had it right, Yet feet that wandering have gone, Turn at last to home afar. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit. For me, home is where family is.
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I’d love to hear from you, but I’ve had to take the Comments section down from my blog because of people who abuse it to post adverts and irrelevant comments. But you may reach me through “Contact Frances” on the menu.
