To be honest, it's taken me awhile to really figure out who the real me is. It's taken awhile for life to let me have the time to think this through. Now that I have, I've realized I've learned a couple things along the way -- and I am eager to pass on the knowledge.

​

Some of the stuff I have learned is big. Like, in divorce, everyone loses. And also, there is no lonelier place to be than in a bad marriage. And when you write non-fiction, you aren't just exposing yourself. Some of the stuff is really small, like the way the ocean smells, and the way clover tastes, and the fact that making out in a hay loft is, in reality, more itchy than romantic, and that salmon is delicious when it is wrapped in foil and cooked on a barbecue, and because of the way salmon tastes, I worry about the health of our oceans. And then there is the way the big dipper shines, and the fact that children say the funniest things, and the realization that, on the whole, none of us take enough time looking at clouds and imagining them as pirate ships and dinosaurs. And oddly, it has become just as essential to me that I tell you about the taste of clover as it has to tell you that God is good. All the time.

​

I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree (with a major in English Literature and a minor in Social Studies) and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (majoring in Creative Writing). For my Master's Degree, I wrote a memoir about going back to school as a single mother and mature student entitled, "On Running Away from the Zoo to Join the Circus." It's a pretty good title, except as the single mother of four, some days it was also my life.

​

I have taught school at multiple levels, have written scripts, essays, poems, songs, articles and books. I have edited books, essays, and articles. I have interviewed fascinating people and researched interesting events and intend to spend a lot of my next years traveling to far away places. I have led four different bands and have recorded six albums of original music. I can't dance, and I am truly horrible at baseball, but I take pretty nice pictures of pretty beautiful places, and when I am out in nature, I am at peace. 

​

I am a mom and a daughter and a sister and an aunt. I am a friend and an employee. Once upon a time I was pretty decent at tennis and at volleyball, but that was then and this is the trashed ankle version of now. I have known great love, and I also know what it is like to have my heart shredded, just hacked apart and discarded like weeds thrown out to rot. My very first true love was my palomino Quarter Horse mare, Lay Dee Pete. If you read me for any extended length of time, I promise you will meet her. I play guitar and piano and sing and I like to paint, although I'm not so great at it. I have two piercings (used to be three) and one tattoo. My tattoo is a bear paw with the words Let It Be scrolled underneath. The tattoo artist wanted to make the words bigger than they are. I should have let him.

​

In the summer you will find me at the beach, and in winter you will find me covered in cozy blankets, but Autumn is my favorite season, by far. Black licorice is my favorite candy. Coffee is my drug of choice. I am on Facebook and on Twitter and on YouTube, and if you google my name, you will get pages of hits. If you go back far enough, you will even find the promotional articles UBCO paid me to write for two years, way back when I was a grad student. If you go that far, you will also see hits from Seth Macfarlane, of course, and also Robert Macfarlane, the writer. That is my ex-husband's name, and I have always wondered if they were one and the same. But, in the interest of my mental health, I have never checked. 

​

When I was a child, I used to be afraid that sharks would get me in the indoor swimming pool and that rapists were lurking under my bed. They had clearly gained access to my room through the tunnels which connected to the trapdoor below the floorboards. As a young mom my greatest fear was that my car would go off the road and into the lake, and I would not be able to save all my children. I would have to save the youngest and hope the older ones could survive on their own. For a while I feared STD's, but even more, I feared another pregnancy, and I also feared being misunderstood. But then, I experienced being misunderstood, and now, well, it is what it is, I guess. Right now, sitting on my sofa with my dog curled up beside me keeping my hip warm, I don't feel too many fears, at all. It was pay day, today, you see, and I ate a good dinner and drank half a Budweiser and created this website -- which I hope you will enjoy. 

​

Right now, I've come out on the other side of some tougher days, and I'm good, and I have a lot to share. I hope you are interested. But even if you are not, this is going to be great fun. Because after a few false starts and some missteps, I think I finally have figured out me. At core, some things remain consistent and true. I love nature. I love my family. I love music. I love animals. I love God, even if some days I have to work at my faith -- with fear and trembling, as the Bible says.

​

I am, in all things, a creative. Which is why this is possibly the longest bio written for any web page ever, with possibly the shortest amount of employment data included, ever. This is my website. May it inspire, amuse, entertain and uplift you.

​

 

Welcome to Macfarlane Creative!

​

​

 * - Oh, and one more thing...

The photograph which is the backdrop for this page of the site was taken with an iphone on a private little strip of Okanagan Lake. TBH, I snapped it as I was leaving. The sun's beams were streaming through the pine trees just so, and the lake was shining in gold like this song from my childhood about a golden sailboat set on a golden sea... The dandelions in the foreground had turned to fluff, as you can see, and the entire effect was this misty, ethereal golden kindgom. A perfect moment snapped at the perfect moment. The next day, at almost this precise location, an arsonist started a fire which displaced people from their homes, damaged some structures and destroyed others. Less than 24 hours from the moment this picture was taken, everything in this frame was gone.

​

​