I grew up in a family where military service was considered a great honor. My father had been in the Army at Panama when the canal was under construction, and contracted malaria while there. He was discharged early due to medical reasons. My oldest sister spent four years in the Air Force, my niece was in the color guard in the Navy JROTC, and I spent four years in the Navy (where  I met Mr. Right, who was also active duty USN). Both our sons were in Air Force JROTC and one went on to active duty as a linguistic cryptologist in Arabic. 

The other thing our family treasured was art. My mother created paintings under the name Al Terego (alter ego), and her work was sold across the country. My talent wedged itself into writing, although I’ve been told I draw really good stick figures. My husband loves art as well, and the house has paintings and drawings by him and my late mother. I also have posters of art by my oldest son, Jamin Allen.

The picture here, Kyrenie Firestorm Raging Glory came in at fourth place in the 2009 Preditors and Editors’ Reader’s Poll under the Artwork category. He had three pieces entered, and all three placed in the top ten!

The scene is from my website, and depicts a local “firestorm” on the planet Kyrenie. I write Science Fiction Romance, and in order to make the books more “real” to the readers, I created an extensive website to feature places from my books.

My site says it features Art, SciFi, Romance, and Erotica. In support of the Arts, I host galleries on my site for the various cover artists and illustrators from my books. Anne Cain has Yutai Art, and is named as a character in Alitus, Tales of the Chosen. Laura Givens’ gallery is Dark Neon, and she is L Givens in the book Jawk, Tales of the Chosen. In an ironic twist, Laura did all three of the covers for the Tales of the Chosen series, Wulf, Alitus, and Jawk, but she is mentioned in the upcoming book Surrender Trust, which will likely have a cover by Anne Cain.

The gallery for my son Jamin, which, spelled backward, is Nimaj, was then blended with the word imagination to create Nimajination. An art college student turned hard-working married man, his art career is part time right now. He does find time to do work for me. Now if only I could afford to hire him as a full-time artist… ah, someday.

The latest gallery is by Amy Harlib, who illustrated the first version of The Last Vhalgenn. The short story was later compiled with others from the ezine Lorelei Signal, edited by Carol Hightshoe. The anthology went on to final for an EPPIE in Fantasy in 2008. The story was later released as a standalone by Shadowfire Press, and will be released in audiobook format at AudioLark on March 24th of this year.

As fate would have it, the tale of the female warrior Raik, who risks all to protect her country and king, is being released one day after another book of mine comes out from Loose Id, on March 23rd. At the Mercy of Her Pleasure also features a military heroine, Captain NarrAy Jorlan.

Truly, military and the Arts are still mixed in my family, and quite healthy after two generations. I can’t wait to see what my grandchildren do with their heritage.