1. I was married once. My husband was the author of a book of poetry about Viet Nam called A POET GOES TO WAR. I was his third wife out of five or six to date. When my twin daughters died in premature birth he abandoned me. The marriage lasted from wedding date to divorce date - 7 months.

2. I have overcome an intense phobia of using escalators.

3. I had a phobia about driving until after my parents were killed in a car accident. I got my first driver's license at age 30.

4. I bought a car and drove it for the first time when I took my driver's test. Thick snowflakes were falling so that visibility was almost zero. Ronald Reagan had been shot about ten minutes before my test started. The driving examiner was so distracted from the President's shooting that it was all he could talk about. He showed me where the controls for the heat and wipers were because I was unfamiliar with the car. I had never had a driver's lesson. I passed the test perfectly. I've driven excellently and with no fear from that day on.

5. I have climbed the pyramids of Tikal, Tulum, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Palenque, Monte Alban, Teotihuacan (twice), and Tula.

6. I've seen the "miraculous" image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

7. I had malaria in El Salvador.

8. I had a phobia of singing solo in front of anyone until I was 45.

9. I am related to Cotton Mather on the maternal side of my family.

10. I have a hardcover book illustration on Amazon.com for a book titled "Camp Of The Angel" published by Philomel, a division of Penguin Putnam.