Penny Rudolph

I've worked as a bartender, truck driver (I had to stand up to shift!), chile picker, musician, bookkeeper, secretary, anything I could convince people I should be paid for.

When I finally finished college, I graduated to science writing, medical writing, feature writing. I loved doing widely diverse things, from watching open-heart surgery to talking to ranchers about cattle breeding, to interviewing NASA scientists about Saturn. I've made the rounds with a game warden, interviewed opera stars, visited digs with an archeologist, watched the making of steel, and interviewed Apache hunters.

Later I taught high school creative writing and journalism at the college level. When I decided money might be a nice thing to have, I turned to corporate writing. I was the pleased and surprised recipient of more than 50 national writing/editing awards including an International Golden Quill.

When I got to where money wasn't all that important, I tried my hand at fiction. I'm sure glad money wasn't important because that was a real uphill battle. Along the way I won a 2003 EPPIE and was a finalist in five national fiction competitions.

I've lived most of my life in New Mexico, with a few detours to the east and west coasts. Albuquerque is my home now, which I share with my husband Ralph and a small menagerie of rescued animals.