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7th Birthday
Rad and Malach |
KI Thompson
So what does one do when one finds oneself in the wrong career but the right city? She returns to school; or at least that's what I did. Now I realize it was somewhat unconventional going to graduate school in Theology at the University of San Francisco, but hey, I had the time on my hands and I was (and still am) really interested in the greater questions in life. After graduate school and ten glorious years in San Francisco, I wound up in corporate ethics in Memphis, Tennessee. Yes, it was culture shock moving to the South, but I only lived there a few short years. I made good friends and learned what real barbecue was all about. The illness of a dear friend in Santa Fe, New Mexico, resulted in my relocating there temporarily, and then after her death I decided to stay. It was there that my life did another 180 and I found myself managing a private Southwest Native American art collection. For five years I learned an incredible amount about the culture and art forms of the Navajo and the pueblo tribes, especially the Hopi, Acoma and Laguna people, as well as the Rio Grande pueblos. Everything from pottery, jewelry, rugs/blankets, katsinum and baskets became a wonderful world of discovery. I learned so much and met so many incredible people, many of whom I am happy to call friends. After five years of living in Santa Fe, I read my first book by Radclyffe, Love's Melody Lost. I have since read all of Rad's books and love them all, but LML will always hold a special place in my heart. Not only because it was my first, but because Graham and Anna are such perfect archetypes, and I am such a sucker for romances. Anyway, at about the same time, I joined Radclyffe's Writing Group on Yahoo and it was there that I met my partner, Kathi. Of course, it couldn't be that easy, she lived in Minnesota, but after much commuting we wound up moving to the Washington DC/Baltimore area. So as you can see, I've had the luxury of living in the North, South, East and West and benefited tremendously from the experience. Living in the DC area was partly due to professional reasons, but also because I chose to be close to the cradle of the Civil War, my all-consuming historical passion. My pen name, Thompson, acknowledges both my mother and my Virginia heritage. My father's side of the family fought for the Union, and my mother's family was Confederate. In the past, I rarely, if ever, wrote fiction. But as a child, I had an active imagination (and still do), constantly putting on plays and acting out characters. I never dreamed of someday actually writing stories. Then one day late in 2004 my partner encouraged me to write a short story and submit it to Radclyffe's Authors Challenge web stories. Now, with six short stories under my belt and my first novel, House of Clouds, released by Bold Strokes Books, my life has changed forever. Who knew? And that brings us to the present. Well, at least for now . . . |
A native of Wisconsin, I moved to New York after being accepted to business school at New York University. The Big Apple was such a great place to learn, and while I loved Manhattan (my favorite cocktail), upon graduation I had the great fortune of being offered a job in corporate banking in San Francisco. Ah, the City by the Bay. What can I say about it that hasn't already been said? It is by far one of the most beautiful cities in this country. The only thing wrong with it was the corporate banking part.