| Nancy |
| Minnis |
| Damato |
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About the Author |
| I was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois. At age fifteen I began my working life as "the girl behind the candy counter" at a local theater. My hair and clothes smelled of popcorn, my shoes grew sticky from pop, and kids attempted to make my job miserable, but I got to see the movies for free. Free was important. The post depression expectation that everyone my age contributed to family finances opened up a welcomed opportunity for me. Saturdays became my paradise. I read every free minute and love the world of make believe. |
| Later, at the University of Illinois, I took a part-time job cataloguing documentaries and research materials to help pay school expenses. The experience encouraged my interest in history. |
| The first short story I sold recounted memories of a significant love discovered and lost on that campus. |
| I married, had children, taught, worked for the state and federal government, a cornucopia of occupations. After seventeen years I divorced, then remarried and moved from the area to settle down as an insurance agent in northern Illinois near the Wisconsin border. During these years I squeezed out time to write short stories for magazines, but dabbling at creating didn’t satisfy my hunger. |
| The dream of publishing became my reality when www.wingsepress contracted for THE PAWN, Book I, and then BELONGING, Book II, the beginnings of the Taylor family saga. The legend begins in 1879, covers the turn of the century and into World War I. |
| For the past ten years, I’ve lived in Arizona with Robert, my husband of twenty-six years. In the middle of our house, amid bookshelves crammed with the works of my favorite author, I sit at a computer a minimum of four hours a day, and lately, closer to ten hours. For relaxation, I enjoy playing bocce, Mah Jong, bridge, canasta, poker and board games. And, of course, I still go to the movies--but not for free. |