Graduated: Santa Ynez Valley Union High School in 1973. I was always encouraged by my English teachers to write, and won pretty much every creative writing contest I ever entered all the way through high school. Published: my first poem, a brilliant haiku (I’m pretty sure there were trees and springtime in it), when I was nine. I’ve always been writing something (especially poetry) ever since, although I didn’t start writing for money until around 1992. Started writing: From the time I knew how to put words on paper. I was the type who could read a chapter in a book and pass a test, even without the classroom discussion necessary for some. With an excellent private school background through 8th grade, it was fairly easy to maintain those grades all the way through high school, despite a certain renegade attitude (70s rebel and all that!). In school: I was a straight A student almost all the way through school. I showed, jumped, rode gymkhana and barrel raced. The valley is a “horsey” place and I did, in fact, own horses until I moved to the Tahoe area in 1985. The high school is relatively small and my parents thought it would be a more wholesome atmosphere. Moved: to the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, my 8th grade summer. (If you’re wondering, I’m a klutz on skates.) However, they were roller skating pairs champs in high school together. He refused to acknowledge me or even that he’d had a relationship with Toni. I did try to contact my birth father when my son, Jason, was born. She lives with my mom in Michigan, and we stay in regular touch. I have a half-sister, Fran, who I connected with a few years ago. One interesting side note is that she has written poetry her entire life. She also had me reading chapter books before kindergarten.įound: my birth mother, Toni Chandler, in the year 2000. She inhaled literature and read to me every day from the time I was a baby until I finally told her to quit already. From my mother, I learned a love of language and reading. Learned: from my father the value of hard work and honesty. As a poor immigrant child who was most definitely a self-made man with a 6th grade education, he couldn’t have been prouder. I remember the day he had actually earned his million. We were, however, the “poor rich.” My father made his money in the steel industry in WWII. Grew up: in Palm Springs, CA, in a neighborhood with movie stars and entertainment icons, including Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Kirk Douglas and Arnold Palmer. To put that into perspective, he was born in 1883 and she was born in 1912. Wagner was 72 at the time Valeria was 42. I was adopted at birth by an older couple.

Impulse by ellen hopkins series