I have been writing stories, essays and odds and ends for most of my life.  The very first complete project I did was a screenplay I wrote for Star Trek the first year the program came out.  A science fiction reader, and new TV owner, I was enthralled by that show!  After that, I focused on writing stories based on songs I heard on the radio.  Over the years my little stash of bits and pieces gathered together and gathered dust, because I didn't know what to do with them.
Then, in 1984, my husband and I were having one of those periodic dust-ups that couples somethimes have, and I started writing a book where I killed him off in Chapter One.  When I gave him two choices of how to die, he started to laugh and chose the heart attack over being run over by a bus.  Two weeks later, he pointed out an article about Romance Writers of America and suggested that I join the group and learn what I needed to know about writing a book. 
So, I joined the West Houston RWA chapter and and found myself surrounded with such wonderful talents as Susan Wiggs, Christina Dodd, Barbara Dawson Smith, Pat Kay, and many more wonderful writers too numerous to name.  What a windfall!
Between the fabulous examples I had around me, and attending the RWA National Conference four years in a row, I was  educated and inspired to write two Western Historical Romances and a political thriller.  Meanwhile, in 1990 I joined Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime because I wanted to write a mystery series.  The first of these, A CLEAN KILL, is complete and seven others are plotted.  Later I wrote a police procedural novella for the Anchor Press Challenge that requires writing a novella over a weekend. 
Several classes with Christopher Vogler inspired me to write a screenplay.  The result, HOSTAGE HEART made it to the semifinals of the Writer's Guild Screenplay contest.   Now that I am retired and can devote all my time to writing, I am looking for representation and to market my work.