As a child I wondered our 200 plus forest with a variety of tiny, Golden Nature Guides, tucked under my arm. Flowers; trees; amphibians and reptiles; rocks and minerals; these titles were my teacher. I might craft my lunch from a lush growth of miners lettuce and the tart berries of the Oregon grape (not a grape, by the way) and make tea from the fragrant, trailing herb named by the name the Spanish colonizers herba bueana. In short, was enthralled with the wild.
I started a newspaper when I was in grade school: The Springbrook Spectator, named after our farm. Of course, I wrote all of the articles, the puzzle, the riddle of the week, and did the illustrations. I hand copied a few editions, then passed them out to the people that worked on our farm. I’m still a dork today.
My first name is a Greek surname. My paternal grandfather emigrated in 1913. It was my parents last name until the 1950’s when they changed it to Stevenson (for reasons that I am utilzing to write another novel). I changed it to my first name in the late 1980’s. How do you say it? I suggest gee-on-a-klees.
Wise Words
Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.
Mark Twain
You cannot wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
Navajo proverb
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
Dr. Seuss
