Julianne Ardian Lee
   

In the words of Bill Cosby, "I started out as a child."  I was born in  California, at the age of about zero, on the United States Naval Base at Point  Mugu. Dad was a pilot and Mom a former WAVE. For about a year I was an only child, but then my brother was born, and over the

Age four...ish

years I collected siblings like they were beanie babies. A brother, two sisters, later on a half sister, and we'll not get into the scads of stepbrothers and former stepbrothers.

At twelve I began to write for fun, which I think is the only real reason to write fiction. I figured it beat reality any old day, and I liked sitting at the desk in my room, pretending to be doing something worthwhile. Daydreaming with a purpose, and gradually I realized I could gain approval for the very thing teachers used to criticize me for in class. I wanted to be an actor, and by the age of sixteen my dream - pipe dream - was to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts . But I knew it would never happen. The Academy was in New York, and that was too far away to even contemplate seriously. So I started college as an art major. I was a terrible artist. I did a good job of fooling myself and everyone around me, but eventually I gave up the charade and left home for Los Angeles at twenty.

What, ho! When I got there I found the American Academy had recently opened

Los Angeles, 1973

up a campus in Pasadena. By the kindness of some people I met in L.A., I was recommended to the school and accepted. The following two years was a turning point, that changed my life in ways that are still unfolding. Though an education in theatre bestows skills that are not terribly marketable in ordinary life, the things I learned at that school have benefited me every day since. Stage fright has not since held the terror it once did. At the school, I discovered I could be funny, a fact that might have saved me a lot of grief had I known it in grammar school. I could have been a fabulous class clown. In addition to this self-discovery, while I was at the Academy I wrote my first novel. In longhand. I still had no idea I wanted to be a writer; all I knew was that there could be peace in living inside a story about someone else.

Almost immediately after graduating from the Academy, I met and married Dale Lee. We left Los Angeles, but I was kicking and screaming the whole way. Twenty-odd years later, I still miss the place. We had two kids right away, so I now had three children, one of each: a boy, a girl, and a husband. There were a couple of acting jobs, most notably two days on "At Close Range," a feature film starring Christopher Walken

That's me in the middle, acting up a storm.

and Sean Penn, and a TV movie starring Ann-Margaret. But in trying to be an actor in Nashville, I realized most of the other actors in town were looking forward to their big chance to leave for Los Angeles, and I knew that would never be a possibility for me. At thirty I decided I was getting old faster than I was getting famous, so I looked for something to do besides acting and changing diapers.

I also wrote some video sleeve copy for Fox Home Video. That stands as the most highly paid time per hour I've ever spent, and I loved it even if it did attract sympathy from misguided folks who thought it less honorable than scribbling poetry for no money. I was right there with Liberace, crying all the way to the bank. All the while, though, I continued to write novels and novel proposals to send to New York.

Travis	Nicole

Twelve years, twelve completed novel manuscripts, and eight proposals for uncompleted novels after buying that Writer's Digest, I sold a novel. Sold from an outline, "Son of the Sword" was my thirteenth completed manuscript. Lucky thirteen. Very lucky. Suddenly, during my son's senior year in high school, I was able to put money aside for college.

Truvy, '95

Ziggy 1995-2004

I like my job.

The kids are on their own now, and I want a bumper sticker like those honor student ones, only mine will say, "My child is a sober, responsible, tax-paying ADULT." So there.