A Short Autobiography

I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1964 to parents who valued intellectual freedom and artistic pursuits. My brother was born in 1965 and is a visual artist working in different media. My mother is now an attorney, actually a magistrate with the State of Michigan. My father passed away in 2005 to colon cancer. They were divorced when I was sixteen. My father remarried and I have a half-brother less than half my age. He is an excellent photographer.

Between 1975 and 1977 we lived in Sao Paulo, Brasil. My father was transferred through General Motors – to help start a Detroit Diesel Allison division there. It did not take me long to learn Portuguese and to fit in. Our first apartment was in the heart of the city, on the 13^th floor, and I went wherever I wanted. My brother and I attended a private American school but with children of all nationalities. This experience more than anything created in me a strong love for my country. But don’t read into that the opinion that America is better, only that it is the land that I love.

I graduated from Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1982 and went on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I transferred to their Flint campus in the end of my sophomore year and majored in Social Work and minored in Substance Abuse Counseling. I then became a substance abuse counselor in a residential treatment facility for convicted felons.

I have three children, two of them young men now (one is a student at College for Creative Studies and the other entered the law enforcement track to the police academy). I quit my job as a social worker to stay home and raise my children. But on and off during that time I worked out of my home, including running an in-home daycare in Portland, Oregon, and keeping the books for my husband’s various business enterprises. I also homeschooled my boys until they went to 8^th and 9^th grades respectively. I am now homeschooling my sixth grader as we have not been able to find a school in which she is valued enough to ensure her safety and her educational advancement.

My husband and I own a  landscaping/snowplowing business . I am the office, including bookkeeping, payroll, finances, etc. My involvement has increased dramatically this year.

We own 7.5 acres in northern Oakland County, Michigan and are in the process of expanding our small family farm on a yearly basis. Self-sufficiency is our goal, but we are taking baby-steps due to a lack of time.

In 2000, I started writing again in the hopes of creating a career for myself in writing. Since I could read, I have wanted to be a writer. I started with a YA Fantasy book that was intended as a series and was heavy on my Christian beliefs. Since 2000, I have had a handful of articles, short stories, and essays published in children’s magazines and in the local paper. I have twice placed as a finalist in the SCBWI- Michigan mentorship contest with two different novels. I successfully completed a two year writing course with Christian Writers Guild and my mentor Joyce Ellis recommended I advance to Journeyman level. I didn’t because I felt the course wouldn’t take me where I wanted to go with my work. I then wrote an MG fantasy book titled Rue Rabbit – A Wild Tale – a sophisticated yet humorous animal adventure fable.

I am currently working on finishing my dystopian science fiction YA novel and also developing a historical fiction novel, inspired by my recent travels to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Porter

Watch for my science fiction short story Lost: Space Monkey for ages 10 to 12 in the upcoming July issue of Stories for Children Magazine.

Post-Its from A Parallel Universe was a finalist in the 2008 National Book Arts Bash for best overall blog.  Post-Its was awarded the Butterfly Award from Joy Delgado.

 Kai Strand  http://cleanwriter.livejournal.com/35819.html has honored my blog with the “One Lovely Blog Award”. Thanks, Kai.