Introduction from a New Blogger

Hi, my name is Debra Purdy Kong, and I'm new to the blogging world. People tell me it's fun, so here goes.

I have a college diploma in criminology but because of different twists and turns in the road, I wound up working in offices for 13 years. I quit to raise my family and 14 years later returned to salaried work, this time in retail. Through all this, I've been writing about 27 years now, and have been lucky enough to have published stories, personal essays, and articles in a variety of publications. I've also published a mystery novel called Taxed to Death and the sequel, Fatal Encryption, will be released in early 2008. Needless to say, I have a lot of opinions about the ups and downs of the writing world. I've suffered through two unproductive agents, one horrible publisher and too many incompetent magazine editors. Still, I've had some terrific experiences too. Before I go any further, though, I'll post this and see if I've actually managed to press the right buttons. I'm not great technically, and this is my second attempt. Oh well.