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AbBA Absolutely Beth Austin
Freelance Writer residing in New Zealand


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© Beth Austin
All rights reserved

Read it and weep. That means all the purple prose contained in these pages belongs to moi and you pilfer it at your peril.

Of course, links are always welcome. Email me and let's talk link exchange.

Reprints of my previously published work are available for purchase. Email me for details or check out the offerings I have posted at Mediocom.

Cheers,
Beth


Er, well, um blush now that you've asked me:

I was born the 3rd of February, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the 4th child of Agnes Veronica Smith and Charles Canfield Balzer. I think I arrived at around 10 pm about 2 weeks later than expected. This may be why I'm an inveterate night-owl and have a tendency to be 'the late Ms Austin.'

Over the years I've migrated west; Denver, Los Angeles, and then in 1986, New Zealand. I think I'll stay here. If I go any further west, I'll start going east, and I might end up back where I started. That would not be good. Life is a journey forward. I've already spent too much of my allotted time on this plane going around in circles.

This bio is a 'work in progress.' I'll add to it as the spirit moves me. Feel free to ask me about anything I write here; or anything I don't write about here, for that matter. Like everyone else, I love talking about myself, although I don't promise to give away all my secrets.

Click on Write to Me in the menu bar to the left to send me an email.

So! Who am I? Read on to meet Beth Austin as:

Freelance Writer

Computer Buff

Martial Artist

Horsey Person

Freelance Writer

Early in 1999 I decided to get serious about becoming a creative writer. I've spent more years than I care to count churning out technical documentation as a Computer Buff and always fancied that I could be a good storyteller.

I signed up for a correspondence writing course, joined a writers' group, and I was away. I'm published in both print and electronic media, and, although it is not nearly as remunerative financially as technical writing, it's much more rewarding to my soul.

Late in 2000 (the 29th of December, to be exact) I went online, submitting some of my work to Themestream.com. Very quickly I was writing articles specifically tailored for the TS community, and felt like one of the family. Since then TS has gone to dotcom heaven (or hell as many writers who were never paid for their work hope). It would have been my first paycheck for writing on the net.

Fortunately for me, I'd already started casting my net further afield in cyberspace, so I wasn't left completely out in the cold. Click on Home in the menu bar to the left for a list of the various online venues where you can read my writing.

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Computer Buff

I've been working with computers since the late 1960's.

Those were the days when you punched your program out on cards and loaded it into the computer via the card reader. Provided the card reader didn't jam and chew up some of your cards, after your program was loaded, you set the dial on the computer console to your program's start address and pressed the start button.

Then you sat and watched the lights on the console go round and round in an endless loop because you didn't set your indexes properly. You could actually stop the computer and step through your program one instruction at a time to see where you were looping. Really clever programmers could enter online patches and test their changes to see if they worked.

As a last resort, you'd print out a hex dump (Anyone out there remember them?) and desk check it. You had to understand machine language down to the bit level in order to interpret it.

More to come . . .

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Martial Artist

Since the early 1970's I've trained in a number of martial arts, primarily Aikido and Naginata with a smattering of karate, hapkido and judo. I'm currently doing Tai Chi (that's Kung Fu for Senior Citizens).

For me, martial art training was the beginning of my journey toward personal development and higher consciousness. By applying the martial art philosophy in my daily life I've been able to confront and work through blocks which prevented me from acting effectively in threatening or stressful situations.

It's also a lot of fun.

I developed a workshop, Personal Power for Personal Protection, which I teach to people who aren't particularly interested in martial arts, but want to feel safe and more in control of their lives. Visit my online workshop at Suite101.com.

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Horsey Person

I've been horse crazy since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. It wasn't until I came to New Zealand that I was able to thoroughly indulge my passion.

Here, every third person you meet grew up with horses around them. If you don't own a horse yourself, one or more of your friends probably has a horse you can ride, or knows someone who does.

The first, and so far only, short story of mine that was published in a print magazine, is a horse story. You can read it, Red Ribbon Day, at ForHorseyPeople.com, my Horse, Pony and Equestrian Online Club.

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