Author of the Montfort series, playwright, screenwriter, radio producer, blogger. I began research and travel for Montfort in 1977 and completed the first draft in 1985. I continued with research into the 13th century and Simon until the last volume was in print in 2011. I had turned down contract offers in 1977 (Playboy Press -- no thanks)and 1985 (No I won't change the main character to a woman.) When my newest agent (2007-8) came up with the same demand that the main character had to be a woman, I decided to self-publish to get the book in print as I saw fit.
I've also been an art dealer and fine art print publisher, an actor and director for stage, a writer of art books on Chinese ceramics (I worked with Christies back then.) And, back in the '70's, entranced by "peace through trade", I was early into the China trade, selling Agway's quick frozen bull sperm to the Inner Mongolian Grasslands Institute.
A New Yorker much of my adult life, I live in rural Pennsylvania now with my 4 dogs, 3 cats and my husband Peter, a retired theater and opera critic, and active cookbook writer. Our animal collection is reduced from 75, which included horses, goats, sheep, geese, pheasants, peacocks, chickens and ducks. Our wildlife here includes bears, bobcats and mountain lions -- we really are in forest and farm country. I'm a member of Mystery Writers of America because of my play,"An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe."
My beginnings: I was born in Los Angeles, where my father, Fredric M. Frank, was a staff writer for Cecil B. deMille. My kindergarden bus delivered me to Paramount, where I barked at the Dobermans in the gate kiosk with Jerry Lewis.
