Who am I?

I was born in Germany in 1968. Me and my three younger brothers grew up in the middle of a forest in the heart of the Luneburgian Heather. After romping through the forest with imagination as my guide, tomboy-me learned to read and disappeared into magical adventures, past times or eerie fairytale woods.

I didn’t stop at reading. During my training as a landscape gardener, I wrote my first novel, a manuscript full of a beginner’s mistakes. Fortunately, I found books on Creative Writing and soon my stories improved. For a while, reality interfered with my writing but after finishing a degree in forestry and a PhD in Science, I returned to my vocation. I like to write Fantasy, Science Fiction and Historical Novels for all age groups.

At present, I am writing at my next project in a small house near Hildesheim, Germany, where I live with my husband, my three children and my dog. I've had various short stories published in Germany as well as a non-fiction e-book in US-Fantasy author Holly Lisle’s “The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About …” series.

Like all humans I am more than the sum of my parts.

I am
   an incorrigible optimist with an occasional trait of realism,
   a housewife with a touch of chaos,
   a brilliant organiser with tired moments,
   owner of a possessive used dog,
   gardener of a wilderness,
   as well as overqualified forester.
Those are but a few facets of my many interests.

I love life, nature (incl. people) and particularly books but most important to me are my family and my manuscripts. The theme of my life comes from my great-granmother:

Nothing is as bad as it is good!

It means: there are always two sides to a coin.

I am the oldest child two universally talented genii. I inherited the "universally" but I am not so sure about the "genius".
My mother was a secretary with unbelievable 350 lettres per minute. After my birth she dedicated her considerable energy to us (her children), her ill grandmother, her parents, various animals living with us, the household and the church feminist movement. Of course, my father wasn't left out either.
Father was always easy to find since he was usually in his office if he wasn't in the woods. As head of the municipal forestry office Uelzen he took his tasks very seriously (by the way this also is the meaning of his first name). From early on in his career, he focused on nature-near-forestry.

Mutter's social aptitude and father's enthusiasm for nature have influenced me and my three brothers strongly. The older I get, the more I discover small things or patterns of behavior that point out to me how strong this influence was and still is.