Chris was born not in Philadelphia, or anywhere near it, but in Chico, California. Her mother liked to move so much she ended up in several places in the Golden State, spending most of her adolescent years in Compton, five miles from Watts. She first saw Bobby Rydell on television at the age of nine. She admired his singing talents, and became really smitten with him when the hormones kicked in at age eleven. She has lived in such locations as Maui, Salem, Oregon, Hilo, Hawaii, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Presently she resides in Honolulu. Although Chris wasn't much into sports as a child, at thirty, she decided she must experience ice skating, after having been bold enough to strike out and try ballet the year before. As she became more immersed in skating, attending both freestyle and patch sessions prior to donning her suit for work, Chris became very interested in the skating culture, as well as the psychology of the skaters, parents, and coaches. It was different from anything she had ever witnessed in the wacky world of newspapers, her first career, or as a computer operator in manufacturing environments (interesting, and engineers are very strange). So Chris started incorporating the personalities and customs of the rink into her unpublished novels. Unfortunately, however, she gave up on that for awhile, as she was sure nobody with a printing press would actually be interested in it. Tonya Harding was indeed in the wrong back in 1994, but gave Chris a renewed interest in writing novels about skating. So she put aside the ones about World War II romance, Cold War romance/intrigue, terrorism involving an airline crash, and her science fiction novel, and tried hard to think of a real plot for her skating novel instead of just the relationships between the personalities. She did it! Now she has a whole series of them! They're all related to each other, but each can stand on its own. Unfortunately, just when she thought she was about finished with the one she wanted to hawk to publishers first, her creative writing teacher, Ron Carlson, gave her some winning ideas for increasing reader interest which she felt she must respect, causing an ungodly rewrite she could have finished under normal circumstances in six months, but the instructors of her other classes in the M. A. Program in English at the University of Hawaii chose to interfere with her grand design. For much of the current fall semester she was languishing around Chapter 12, but has made it to Chapter 26. She plans to finish the rest of the chapters the week after she turns in the last papers, and then -- and only then -- start adding the SEX SCENES. Click here to read about the book and email Chris if you'd like to be a test reader. Once you fill out her nifty form and promise to hand over the rest of your earnings for your natural life if you dare lift even a sentence, you'll be in business. Another possible project which intrigues her is the idea of writing a biography of Bobby Rydell. Besides writing and skating, Chris is interested in baseball, Hawaiian culture, classical music, and ballet. If wealthier, she would be an unstoppable shopaholic. For nauseating detail about the things Chris likes best, visit her Obligatory Favorites Page. She has conducted a modest study of the Holocaust and its literature, but fears she's becoming too soft in middle age, as seeing walking skeletons is beginning to bother her. She took a brief foray into gymnastics, which might have worked out better had she been twenty years younger. She has done her time on the LifeCycle, but considers aerobics "inane," preferring physical activities which require a little intellect. Don't mention football to Chris. It's her least favorite sport, except perhaps, curling. When she watches the summer Olympics on TV, she likes gymnastics and diving, and besides the skating in the winter Olympics, she watches ski jumping and alpine skiing. For a time in her life, Chris thought she might like to have children, but in the end, decided that her parrot, Charles, was all the offspring she could realistically cope with. Wrapping up the newspaper in the cage once a day was a lot easier than voluminous diapers, she reasoned. By this time she had already decided that she could no longer put up with her disgusting ex-spouse, Norman. She only miscalculated a bit. She was absolutely right about Norman, but even though the Charles is twenty-two, he will never grow up, and remains naughty and spoiled, calling her if she fails to make her appearance in the living room prior to sunrise and screaming for ice cream on a regular basis. He's a rather picky eater, preferring part of her dinner to his seeds, yodeling with delight at the sight of his favorite foods, mushrooms (saut�ed in butter and garlic) and baked potatoes. Recently she asked Charles if, since he had reached avian maturity, he would like to have baby birds. He just said, "Rah," which she interpreted to mean that he would prefer an exclusive relationship with her. She worries a bit, unsure whether Charles considers her his mother or his mate. He's reticent to discuss the entire matter, leaving even the matter of his gender a secret. How did Chris come to be the webmaster of the Ultimate Bobby Rydell Website? She looked high and low, in from Alta Vista to Yahoo, and couldn't find one about him. Thirty-six years ago she began collecting articles about and pictures of Bobby Rydell. She had web-building experience before, although this was her first fan website. Chris has an eclectic collection of other websites, which can be accessed merely by clicking here. None of them, however, require as much effort as Michelle Kwan's Magical Moods on Ice. She is confident none will reach 25-megabyte proportions, unless, in the future, it is the Sarah Hughes site. That is why, although she feels a bit guilty to admitting it, she wonders how she could maintain her Bobby site had there not been a British Invasion. She feels absolutely grateful that the careers of baseball players are relatively short-lived, and Sandy Koufax has retired. His site is easy. Currently Chris makes her living as webmaster of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Honors Program site. God only knows what she will do when she graduates if one of her novels is not published. She will either take shelter in a Ph.D. program, racking up another round of student debt, or go to work in the real world -- a rather frightening thought. She knows that there aren't many jobs in skating rinks, and to keep Charles in mushrooms, she needs a job that pays somewhat more than minimum wage. If you have any suggestions, email her. |
