Quiet Things, Quiet Places

Leona Koehn Nichols was born and raised on a farm in Livingston, Ca. the middle child of three children. She remembers an idyllic childhood with parents who loved them, and a mom who knew how to make it fun to be a child. Living near the Merced River, summer afternoons were spent swimming, often with cousins as well as her two brothers. Her mom was a reader whose gift of reading to her children at bedtime is a memory still treasured. She read the children's classics as well as Bible story books. Bedtime was a time the children looked forward to. In her late 40's she was privileged to attend college, earning a B.A. in English and then becoming a teacher for nearly 20 years. She taught English classes for junior high and high school, always with great passion for poetry and other literature. She is currently retired and lives with her "farmer" husband on their almond ranch in Central California. She enjoys gardening, but her first love is her large family of six children, twenty grandchildren, and six great-grands. Writing has always been an activity that is important to her.