Ellen Coss-Kennedy

Originally from the Boston area, I now live in Western Mass with my husband JP. Our two children are off at college, one in Germany, the other in Connecticut. We are both paramedics, and my husband still works as a firefighter/paramedic.

That makes us the all-American couple as I am a teacher. (You would be surprised how many firefighter/teacher matches exist.) Together we enjoy boating, fishing, the ocean, gardening, growing orchids, cooking, and wine tasting. We raise and train dogs, keep poultry, some of which are also trained, and he puts up with my endless time spent writing.

I attended Friends World College, before it was swallowed up by Long Island University, and was fortunate enough to travel, live, and study in both the Caribbean and East Africa. The Africa bug is apparently genetic, as both of my boys have traveled to Africa, Sebastian chose South Africa, Ian went to East Africa. I did my graduate work at UMass and continue to study, including such diverse topics as English Language Learners and the Forensics of Fire.

Recently I became a student judge in the American Orchid Society, a scary thing as there are well over 30,000 species of orchids. A judge needs a working knowledge of all these plants, along with the ridiculous number of hybrids. Needless to say, that is taking up a lot of my time.

I continue to teach horseback riding and occasionally consult on other people's problem dogs. My own dogs require daily work, each one working to their own capacity. For example, Lizzy has shown great interest in tracking, so I expect to be covered in poison ivy.

My siblings and I just lost our mother to a swift cancer, our father died 20 years ago. There had been some discussion of creating a blog where we could share our writing, so here it is, hope you find it worth the time to read.