about me

Beverly is an innovative novelist, public speaker and educator who hopes her experience, education and gift for storytelling can be used to help build a more tolerant and just world, one that would be safe and secure for all of God’s creatures.

Beverly was born in the middle of the last century and raised on the north side of Chicago. Television was in its infancy, computers were the size of battleships, no one had landed on the moon, and kids were actually expected to find ways to entertain themselves with weird toys like marbles, chalk, boxes and string, skates and bikes and, if they were girls, a urinating doll called “Betsy Wetsy” (honest to God). Beverly attended Catholic schools and received an excellent education despite all of her attempts to do otherwise. She credits her lifelong passion for books to parents who liked to read, as well the quality of the education she acquired purely by osmosis. She may also have been drawn to books as a dry alternative to that damn urinating doll.

The tumultuous sixties and early seventies were formative years for Beverly. Tragic assassinations, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War shaped her in many profound ways. On top of that, she lived through the terror of Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Haldeman, Erlichman and Dean, as well as G. Gordon Liddy. The experience so profoundly traumatized her that she suffers political PTSD to this day.
Beverly went to college right out of high school and failed miserably. She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer today but she’s no longer the Village Idiot either. Beverly eventually returned to college at the age of thirty-nine and it was one of the best decisions of her life.

Once back in college, Beverly was amazed by how much all of those professors had learned in her absence. More than a few actually knew what they were talking about (proof that life never ceases to amaze!). Beverly pursued training in history, psychology, and philosophy and her particular areas of interest include WWII and the Holocaust, the history of religion, modern medicine and healthcare ethics. Demonstrating that education is wasted on the young (as it was on her at one time), as an adult student who felt “daylight was burning,” Beverly ended up being highly motivated and devoured her college classes. Before the educational experience was over, Beverly bagged numerous impressive awards for research and writing. Of all the awards she received, however, Beverly is most proud of the fact that she was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the Honor Society of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. This honor is important to Beverly because it stresses the ideal of service to others.

Eventually Beverly found herself on the other side of the lectern teaching college-level history and philosophy. This experience allowed Beverly to really appreciate what it’s like to have inexperienced, uneducated, and thoroughly self-satisfied college students look at you like you’re an idiot. However, Beverly suggests you can have this same rewarding experience by having children of your own (and save yourself the commute. As if being scorned by college students wasn’t bad enough, Beverly also worked as a paralegal. She’s saving a discussion about that experience for a conversation with John Grisham or Scott Turow. In the meantime, her therapy is progressing and she hopes she finally has a handle on her masochism.

Beverly freely admits that on several occasions she’s lost her mind but it wasn’t until she was in her 50’s that she learned her lifelong struggle with depression had a more insidious side (and a clinical name) and, in fact, she’d been struggling with manic-depressive illness (bipolar disorder) for decades. It helped explain (to her anyway) how a life that seemed to be outwardly normal (most of the time) was secretly haunted by a mind that was chaotic, unpredictable, and sometimes even totally irrational. Beverly believes in the miraculous benefits of qualified professional help, lifestyle changes when necessary, holistic methods, spirituality, personal hard work, and unconditional love to effect dramatic positive changes in one’s life.

Today Beverly shares her life with her husband Al and four cats, a dog and a parrot, all of whom have been rescued (the animals, not Al). She knows from personal experience what it means to be rescued and believes animals and people are not expendable. The more flawed they are, the more love they need. Beverly now lives in rural obscurity and writes novels.

favourite books

We Are Not Yet Conquered
Grapes of Wrath
Education of Little Tree
Huck Finn

my websites