Bio:
Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently
retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at
her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was
planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last
century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to
finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the
mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved.
Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives
along, Ann prefers her solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those
journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging
conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she
returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five
hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning.
And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.
Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she
try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story
found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then.
A trilogy, the Transformation Series, featuring Psyche’s Prophecy,
Psyche’s Search and Psyche’s Promise is complete. The
initial two books have been published, with the final volume scheduled for
release in 2012. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales
often have a green twist and the Transformation Series is no exception.
In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness
photography. Part of her website is devoted to photos of her beloved Sierra.
And she lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales
every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is
camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone else
is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children,
grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.
@AnnGimpel (for Twitter)
Thanks for hosting me today!
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