People who know me were not too surprised to learn that at 90, I had just published my first novel, “Fisherman’s Creek.”  Now 92, my second suspense novel, “The Heiress of Newfield” is also available for sale through Amazon Books.  (I hope you'll read the excerpts from those books that are available on this site – and then buy them!)  A few of my other works are here and you can read them in their entireties for free.

    From time to time I'll change the contents of this page, so please stop back and visit again. For me, writing is fun, and I hope you'll have fun reading it.

    Everything has come late to me, even my overdue birth in my family’s old house on Washington Square, New York. I was so slow in getting born that the hired nurse relieved her boredom by sampling some of the bottles in the family wine cellar.

    Education came slowly, too. I attended, without distinction, two fine private schools, the Brearley in New York, and the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., but never was awarded a diploma until I finally received my GED at Greenwich High School in Connecticut at the age of 77. A divorce situation in the family had caused my return from Shipley, where I was a boarding student, to New York, so I didn't graduate on time – to say the least! However, even without a high school diploma I did attend courses (drama and creative writing) in the Extension School at Columbia University.

    I consider my high school certificate from Greenwich High School as remarkable an achievement as my completed novels. On another level, I rate my second marriage, at 70, to Richard Bishop in 1988, as further proof that “age cannot wither…”

    With my first husband of 46 years, Denis Hendricks, I lived in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich for more than 40 years and was an active volunteer in various organizations. During that period I served for 11 years as editor and contributor to the Greenwich Social Review, now known as Greenwich Magazine. Years later, I edited a small newspaper, Senior Outlook, until Lyme disease forced me to quit.

    It also forced me, at 77, to give up sailing my little Beetle class cat boat on Long Island Sound. I was a slow learner at sailing, too, but managed for 30 years to avoid drowning. Asked about my hobbies, I have a standard answer, “Simply staying alive.”

    After being widowed a second time, my two sons, Peter and Erik Hendricks, contributed much encouragement as I struggled with conquering the computer and were responsible for the photography and cover designs of the books. Erik, my younger son, was my editor for the second novel and is currently working with me on my third book.

    My New England ancestors were pioneer publishers (D. Appleton & Co.) and there have been many writers, teachers and editors in my background, so one can say that for the past 50 years I've been “doin’ what comes natrully.”

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Writing is a great joy to me.  I hope to use this space as a home base for future thoughts and ideas about all kinds of things, some serious and some absurd. I would welcome your comments.  I think that you would agree that writing is a wonderful way to sharpen your mind, to lighten your spirits and to stay healthy – no matter what your "chronological" age!


 
Writing for Fun and Health
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Tina Appleton Bishop, A Late Bloomer
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