A Slice of History from Viva

Isn't this a great group of bloggers? Aren't you intrigued about what you'll be able to read from them?

I've been a member of the Historical Novelists list since 2002 (or so). They feed my love of history, research, and just good conversation. Being associated with them has enhanced my appreciation of history and how it shapes our present lives. Engaging in the conversations has illuminated some previously unknown facts and situations.

My writings run the gamut. My writing life began with providing publicity for the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce as well as the Business & Professional Women's Club. Those were in addition to writing legal documents and related matters as a transactional and litigation paralegal (oh yes, and as the South Coast Air Quality Hearing Board Legal Clerk). Those endeavors were soon supplemented with my becoming a freelance journalist/reporter and law clerk.

After a while, my writings took on more form as I began hosting and producing my own radio newscast on legal news for the visually impaired community in the Bay Area. My research areas also grew as I did freelance research on women's health issues for KRON.

While my poetry titles continued to grow from high school, I began to keep my manuscripts and perform them in the early 1970s. That was when my childhood neighbor's godfather revealed that he was a poet and songwriter -- Prince Patridge. He became my mentor. My poetry has also been performed by Mona Golabek on her program "The Romantic Hours" and a few pieces have been published on the Web. I long to have time to put together a collection as a manuscript for a chapbook or for a full book.

My fictional and inspirational writing began in the late 1990s and continues. Again, I have a very strong desire to aggregate many of those pieces for a book.

My life turned away from law and went in the direction of employment and recruiting, then management. Within the first two years of going independent (and a year after earning my California Accredited Consultant designation) I found myself being invited to submit proposals to be a recruiting and HR conference speaker based on my writings in those areas, and to contribute to an India university journal on management.

Desire became reality when I was published as a contributor to one of the CollegeRecruiter.com anthologies on getting a job.

My employment industry endeavors have been refined as the years have passed. My focus areas are in regard to diversity; women as leaders; hiring, retention, and promotion of personnel, especially minority women; ethics; and abuse.

Those areas are where my contributions to Clio's Children will be. The inspiration for focusing on this niche area sprang from being invited to be a speaker-presenter for Black History Month this year and then delivering the sermon in honor of Black History Month.

Being multi-racial, it was easy for me to see the value in sharing some of my research about significant contributions minorities have made to our lives and highlighting their accomplishments in spite of the many obstacles that my specialty populations have made.