I am a disabled, pretty much retired computer network analyst, specializing in wireless networks, who has worked for the Department of Defense since graduating college more than 20 years ago. My dad was career Army, so I spent most of my childhood bouncing around from post to post, mostly in Kentucky, Texas and Alaska. Due to my own job with the DoD, I also lived in Wiesbaden, Germany before moving to Dallas, Texas in 2000. I am now in the process of relocating to Erie, Pennsylvania (dad’s hometown) for health reasons so that I get help from family. I have a BA in print journalism from Western Kentucky University and an MBA from Texas A&M University - Commerce. I am single and my “children” are of the canine variety - an 12-year-old Shetland Sheepdog named Kaileigh (pronounced Kay-lee) and a 8-year-old Lab/Chow mix named Manny. A third dog, a 14-year-old Shiba Inu named Baby, died in 2014.

I have been writing short stories for fun since junior high and writing fan fiction since the late 1990s when I lived in Germany. My tastes are somewhat varied and I have written stories for Lois & Clark, JAG (the fandom where most of my work currently online comes from), West Wing, Batman comics, Buffy/Angel, Harry Potter and now Once Upon A Time.

My other interests include genealogy, hockey (a Dallas Stars season ticket holder until moving), music (until my health required me to quit, I played flute in my church choir), reading (any wonder that Belle is one of my favorite characters on OUAT?) and crafts (also cut back on due to health until I can figure out how to enchant the needles, crochet hooks, etc to do the work for me when my hands go numb…lol).

A word about the ships (as in relationships, particularly as regards OUAT) - I am a Rumbelle shipper. They are my one true pair on the show, so most of my OUAT stories will focus on them. As for the other three main ships currently depicted on the show, I don't dislike - let alone hate - any of them (although I definitely do have a ranking in my head of favorite to least-favorite). At this time, any stories I write will depict ships that are canon on the show. In other words, I am not going to write a Rumbelle story and throw in a break up between CaptainSwan as a sub plot just because. I may play around with the canon ships in the future (particularly if I write the half-baked idea I have to bring Baelfire back, which would likely separate the now-canon CS and resurrect Swanfire, which is also canon but defunct due to Bae's death in season 3). If they are a pair on the show, they will be a pair in my stories. Nor do I hate any of the characters on the show, so I'm not going to write one character negatively just to bash said character. If a character acts in a bad way, it will (hopefully) be because it is in-character and true to who they are - like Hook having issues in chapters 6 and 7 of "Healing Hearts" with the idea that Rumple might be allowed to return to Storybrooke and not being shy about expressing that opinion. For Hook, that reaction is very understandable given the history between Hook and Rumple and the fact that Hook can be a hot head means he isn't going to think about censoring his opinion, even in front of his girlfriend's son who also happens to be Rumple's grandson. But don't look for Hook to actively undermine Belle and Henry's trip just for the sake of making him look like an a$$hole - not going to happen (especially since I mostly like Hook as a character, a whole lot more than I like CS as a pair).

My websites - teacupsroses.tumblr.com (OUAT/Rumbelle-related). My JAG website had to be discontinued for financial reasons, but I am working on adding those stories to AO3, especially the smutty ones.

Current stories in progress

Once Upon A Time -

Healing Hearts - The second story (of four planned, at the moment) in my "Hearts" series. This 30-part story is an AU to episode 4x18 "Heart of Gold" and has Belle and Henry traveling to New York after Robin informs them of Rumplestiltskin's heart attack. It disregards everything that happened in season 4B except for the flashbacks in "Heart of Gold" concerning Rumple's heart attack and also ignores the "six weeks later" coda in the last episode of season 4A. Chapter 4 was posted on 11/12/2015

Reconnecting Hearts - I liked writing Regina so much in chapter 3 of "Healing Hearts" that I decided I had to come up with some story ideas featuring her. Reconnecting Hearts will be a one-shot (likely) showing her first meeting with Robin after the events of "Healing Hearts" and the revelations about Zelena (with no rape/baby story line like we have seen on the show). This probably will not be posted until "Healing Hearts" is finished or close to it, since it will contain spoilers for the previous story.

Conflicting Hearts - This one-shot will be a kind of prequel to "Healing Hearts" and will be a missing scene from episode 4x06 "Family Business", depicting the night that Belle reminisced about in chapter 4 of "Healing Hearts" after she forced Rumple to take her to the Snow Queen's hideout. I will post this soon, although I cannot say if it will be before or after my move to Pennsylvania. If you've read chapter 4 of "Healing Hearts", then you can probably guess that this story will be smutty.

JAG -

Drifting On A Lonely Sea IV - Lean On Me - I am reworking my story outline for this one to break it out into shorter chapters. Due to my disability, I cannot type as much (nor as fast) as I used to, so I am going to break the outline up into shorter parts so that I can get back on track with this story.

Days Of Sunshine, Days of Shadow - The next part is written, but hiding somewhere on my computer (or one of them - I think it is on my old laptop which needs to have the battery charged). Once it is found, it will be posted. Like DOALS IV, I am breaking down my original outline into smaller, more manageable parts to make it easier to work on.

Searching For Sunny Skies - Another one that I am working on further breaking up the original story outline into smaller parts. The next part of this is half written, but with everything else going on, I probably won't be able to complete and post it until after Thanksgiving (in other words, after I am in Pennsylvania).