Phyl's Place

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  A Brief History of...Me

I was born Phyllis Ashworth in Oak Park, Il., went to Morton High in Cicero and then Northwestern.  Got married and divorced a couple of times, had three great kids, then moved to California where my "real" life began.

As a child I read everything I could get my hands on and I knew then that I wanted to be a writer.  But life got in the way until I reached California and settled down with my third husband...the perfect one.  We lived in the Bay Area for many years, then moved to the San Diego area for a while, but now live in a beautiful community in Palm Desert.

Here I write and am active in our local performing arts club.  But mostly I write.  I'm a member of Romance Writers of America as well as Mystery Writers of America and have recently formed a local writer's group in my community, dedicated to helping aspiring writers to network.

Among my credits, I have published six short contemporary romance novels: the most recent being MASQUERADE from Port Town Publishing, which came out in April 2006.  I have also published a mainstream novel, six other romance novels, including two from Barbour Books, and two from Kensington Publishing.  I was a finalist in Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart Awards, and my novel NORTH BY NORTHEAST, a romantic-suspense, won the San Diego Book Award in 2002.

My non-fiction book, Wall Street on $20 a Month, was published by John Wiley & Sons, and I have sold many articles to such magazines as MS, Thin World, Savvy, Fact, Indianapolis, Campus Life, O-T-C Review, South Bay Accent and others.  I have ghost-written three books, one published in the religious field and two self-published by a businessman client.  Finally, I have had two radio scripts produced by American Radio Theater.  My article, "Two-Part Harmony," was published in The Writer Magazine. The article, "Critique Groups, A Writer's Best Friend," appeared in San Diego Writers Monthly.

I have been on radio and television  (for my non-fiction book), have participated in book signings in stores, plus book fairs, and have been featured in national and local magazines.

Finally, I am a member of Mensa and am listed in Who's Who in American Women.   Oh, I should mention that my husband and I have a total of seven children and twenty-one wonderful grandchildren.  But we don't have a lot of spare time!