Through The Fire

TO: AL_CRANE@CSSENTINEL.ORG FROM: COLLEEN_MONTGOMERY@CSSENTINEL.ORG Boss, I'm finishing my article about the Vance Memorial Hospital fire. No fatalities, although several people, including firefighter Lucia Vance and visiting wildfire expert Raphael Wright, were treated for smoke inhalation. I'm trying to stay unbiased--Lucia's a friend--but she's under investigation for disobeying orders, and I think Chief O'Brien is casting suspicion on her to cover himself. Word is he has some hefty debts. Raphael is only too willing to help clear Lucia's name--romance is brewing. It seems as if the Vances are being targeted...but by whom, and why?

About the Author :
Sharon will likely tell anyone who asks that her life is so ordinary it could be used as a commercial for sleep aids. She always knew she wanted to be a writer from the time she was in second grade and discovered those sentences that had to be written to go with the spelling words could be turned into stories. Magic! She remembers vividly getting that first library card, and from then until now she's always read as much as she could. All that reading, in turn, fueled her passion for writing. Though the path to becoming published was a longer one than she'd ever anticipated, she never gave up on her dream to be a published author. After she graduated from college, she became a technical writer, and for many years wrote software documentation for computer systems. User's guides and system analysis weren't quite what she had in mind, though, and she always wrote fiction on the side. During the years she kept polishing her stories and submitting them for publication, while she and her husband raised two daughters who are now grown. One is a ballet instructor and the other is a software developer. Sharon likes to garden, but considers herself an amateur compared to her parents, whose acre yard is a showpiece. Her friends will tell you she has a gardening analogy for just about any life situation - some people compare life to football, Sharon maintains it's like a garden. Her favorite part of her yard is a water garden complete with water lilies and goldfish. She's been married to her best friend for more years than she admits to being old. When she's asked about that, she professes to be lucky - that she got it right the first time and that she can't imagine living her life with anyone else. But then she'll add that marriage is like a garden. It has to be tended and nurtured regularly; you have to focus on the blossoms, recognize and appreciate the cycles of the seasons, and get rid of the weeds so there's room for the good stuff to grow. Her constant companions are a cat and two dogs, an aging Lhasa apso that she's had for many years and a shih tzu rescued from a puppy mill. She says training the shih tzu has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences she's ever had. "He had never been around people, except in a negative way," she says. "So, he was very timid at first, and we'd had him over a month before he wagged his tail for the first time - that was a red-letter day." Sharon is part of a critique group that has been together for nearly 10 years and says its members have become her closest friends. "Publication," she says, "might never have come without their support and encouragement." Once asked what her core belief is, she answered that there are two. First, love conquers all. Second, dreams do come true...when you work diligently toward their achievement. Sharon loves to hear from her readers, who can reach her at sharon@sharonmignerey.com.