Occupation: Career state employee in human services. Only getting into writing now because I thought my job had killed my sense of creativity or optimism. It's coming back as retirement nears. Before that worked as reporter on weekly newspaper

Personal: Married twice, still with second husband. Have raised three boys and a girl to young adulthood

What do you like to do in your spare time: Lately, write. Before that I was a political junkie. Before that I enjoyed dance lessons

Reading interests: Wide-ranging

Writing style: Casual omniscience--I know everything and share it with the readers.. with a wink, when appropriate (love wordplay)

Notes on current works:

The Last Leaf--O. Henry wrote a short story about two young women in Greenwich Village, where one contracts pneumonia and believes she's dying and the building caretaker acts to save her. I took it from there, hence the elongated title, "Extended version by Ophelia Henry".

Rory and Avi, Elsewhere--A high school romance with complications. The couple is separated so I have his/her narrations, with a flashback beginning each chapter. The flashbacks are in third person (a) to provide some context to Rory and Avi's stories and (b) to show the readers how they were together.

Remember the IV--Something to remind me of my least favorite part of a recent hospital stay