Nancy Minnis Damato

Bio: My neck and shoulders have that semi-permanent bow, and sometimes ache, familiar to avid readers who devour all the print their busy schedule can manage. Late nights, early a.m.?s, and stolen hours of reading give me so much happiness, heartbreak, and compassion, the tales a huge influence on me. Courage, determination, ambition, basic survival, vanity, betrayal, greed and thousands of other attributes and flaws of characters become easy lessons about life, broadening my world, strengthening my own character. When I began to write, it was with the same intent--as a gift to my readers to enhance their own lives, to suffer and celebrate vicariously. Born in Illinois, a graduate of the University of Illinois, a Midwesterner most of my life, home gave me a basis to appreciate the additional beauty and blemishes of other places, the differences of speech, the conflict of opinions, the challenge of intolerances. Divorced mother of two, remarried and blending offspring of six, my time became more precious. Still, I found myself driven to read and to satisfy my yearning to write. Sentences, paragraphs, eventually short stories squiggled down between assignments at work brought me enormous satisfaction--also got me fired. Substitute teaching and eventually starting my own insurance agency opened up more writing time. Finally, my day has arrived to fulfill a lifelong dream--you have The Pawn, the first book of a family saga. Enjoy. Let me know at www.nancymdamato what you think. And look for Belonging, book two in the history of the Taylors.