Love to Learn

I'm a lifelong learner, and I love it. Perhaps that's why I became certified in twelve different areas, K-12, when I taught and often joked that I was a professional student. I find the structure of a class keeps me from procrastinating and forces me to get the job done. I stay so busy, I tend to postpone it otherwise. The only way I learn well without this structure is by traveling to places and touring.

When my husband and I moved to our current location and I discovered a small, private university thirty minutes away, I decided to take advantage of some of their programs. They allowed me to take up to nine hours a semester for a ridiculously low tuition price through a special grant. I did this for two semesters, until my first book was published, and then things got too hectic and busy to fit it in. But this new career has been exciting too.

Recently, I've found free online classes that allow me to take a four to six week class, which I complete at my own pace during that time. I'm taking mine from FutureLearn from universities mainly in the United Kingdom. They have a long list of classes staggered to start all along. I especially like the history classes. I recently finished England in the Time of Richard III, which I found to contain excellent information on life in the Middle Ages and the War of the Roses. Now I'm taking A History of Royal Food and Feasting, and I find it quite intriguing. It began with food in the court of Henry VIII. I think there might be a novel set in Old England somewhere in my future. This is furnishing much of the research or at least giving me a good start. Oh yes, I love researching historical novels, too, and I've always had more historicals published than contemporaries. Learning, researching, and writing are so much fun!

Tower of London, Thames view

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