I am the great-granddaughter of German-Russian immigrants and an amateur genealogist focusing on Russians of German heritage.  I am a member of the American Historical Society of the Germans from Russia and the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, as well as the Genealogical Society of Stanislaus County.  I attend the Writer's Workshop at the Modesto Institute of Continued Learning (MICL) where I enjoy combining my love of family with my love of horses in the stories I write. I am a mother and grandmother.  A lifelong Californian, I live in the Central Valley with my husband, Jim, and my horses and dogs.  I have published an award winning (Best Fiction Book of 2013 by Rebecca's Reads) historical fiction novel "...Like Footprints in the Wind" about the "purge of the Kulaks" in Russia just prior to World War II.