Mary Lou Williams--pianist, arranger, composer, and probably the most influential woman in the history of jazz--receives the attention she has long deserved in this definitive biography.
I have always loved to write about characters, usually edgy, little-known folks with wonderful stories and talents. I love places and music too, above all, jazz. As a girl, I dreamed about traveling around the world. As soon as I could, I took to the road. I was fortunate to live and work in several Latin American countries and after college (Latin American Studies, minor in
Buddhism - hey, it was the late '60's), I moved to the Yucatan in Mexico. From there I made the pilgrimage to another foreign country called New York City, with a suitcase and several hundred dollars. Finding the requisite cheap, shabby apartment (you could still do that in those days), I started writing in earnest. I had a number of ridiculous jobs to pay the rent, such as writing reviews of C- movies I never actually saw (and no one else seemed to either), driving an ice-cream truck through Central Park for just one day until I had a fender-bender, and writing a history of the cheeses of the world with a two-week deadline for a manic food editor. I also managed to produce novels, biographies and essays about music and quirky travel articles about Latin American topics - the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio, an interview with a candomble priestess, a.k.a. voodoo, in rudimentary Portuguese, and another with a Mayan healer who fortunately spoke Spanish.
I am happy to say that most of my books have been published, well-reviewed and are still in print. "Gringa in a Strange Land" is my latest, a novel to be published in January of 2010.
