After I started working, in one of my many jobs, at the Department of Agriculture, I wrote a humor column (which got me into all kinds of trouble with that staid and stuffy agency) for about a year. 

     I worked for three years as an Officer Qualifications Analyst for the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Department of the Navy, and was lucky enough to do some traveling, including a stint at the Fifth Naval District, in Norfolk, Virginia, where I toured a battleship.

     For twenty years, I was employed by the Natonal Archives as Assistant Editor of the bibliography, Writings on Amercan History, as well as Compiler and Proofreader of the final volume. This work was done at the Library of Congress, and I was fortunate to have annotated articles and books in languages other than English, eventually learning to read fifteen languages. I also worked as an Archivist and Advisor to Editors of the papers of famous Americans, including the Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, both Adams, Monroe, etc.) and others such as Jane Addams, Baron von Steuben, Hamilton Fish, and Richard Rush, the father of American psychiatry.

    During my period of employment, I earned a B. A. degree in American Thought and Civilization and studied law for a year at George Washington University; earned an M. A. degree in English and American Literature at Georgetown University; and completed all the work for a doctorate in English Language and Philology at The Catholic University of America, all in Washington, D.C.

    My novel, THE TANGLED WEB, is my first book to be published electronically. The plot revolves around Madeleine Taylor, who is working on her doctoral dissertation; a document-stealing ring at the National Archives; and an illegal Mafia-influenced puppy mill in Loudoun County, Virginia. The novel is not based on any actual incidents, although the National Archives has always been a hotbed of intrigue, strange as that might seem to anyone who has never worked there. It is an independent non-Cabinet agency and a pet of the Congress, which makes it very easily influenced by politicians.

My interest in and strong opposition to puppy mills arose when I adopted a Bichon Frise dog who was featured on a 20/20 television program. Clarissa was "breeding stock" and had spent her entire three years in a wire cage, outside in all kinds of weather, receiving no veterinary care or proper food.When she could no longer breed as a result of a severe uterine infection, she was going to be killed by having her head bashed in. The "Miller" didn't want to waste a bullet on her. Luckily, she was saved by a Humane Society official in Parsons, Kansas. Clarissa's ears were so infected when she was rescued that she had almost dug holes in them from scratching. Her feet were deformed from living on wire all her life. Bichons are white dogs with fluffy hair, somewhat like poodles, (like poodles, Bichons should be bathed and clipped every four to six weeks) but she had never been bathed, groomed, or had her nails clipped before her rescue. However, she was a perfect pet, loved by all who knew her, including my other pets.