Biography

I was born an upper middle class, white girl.  Ironically, I was born in Fontana (sometimes called “Fontucky,” particularly now that there is a NASCAR track there) at the Kaiser Hospital near the Kaiser Steal plant that later was shut down like so many others across the U.S.  My parents were Carolyn Krejci, who taught English at Frisbie Jr. High in Rialto, and Joe Krejci, who was a social worker with child protective services for San Bernardino County.  My younger brother Joseph was born 14 months after me. 

Thankfully, shortly after my third birthday, my parents moved out of Rialto, most of which, shortly after their departure, became a gang-infested getto, and moved to Redlands, which is a very literate and fairly wealthy city.  I spent a couple of years in Montessori School, before going to Sacred Heart School for first through eighth grade,  Then I went to Moore Jr, High for ninth grade and Redlands High School for my sophomore through senior years.

I enrolled in California State University, San Bernardino for two years, but classes there seemed too easy, so I transferred to University California, Riverside where I spent another three years and met my future husband Michael Heumann, a Riverside native.  Unfortunately, I also developed some health problems while I was at UCR, so I hobbled around campus rather pathetically and had a disabled parking placard for many years.  Mike stayed at UCR until he finished his Ph.D. in English Literature while I returned to CSUSB to get my M.A. in English Composition and taught composition at local colleges.

At some point in the midst of all our graduate school and teaching of English, Mike and I got married and finally moved out of our parents’ houses (it was the 90s; “20-somethings” living with their parents and wearing flannel were all the rage).  We lived in a little apartment overlooking Ford Park’s Tennis Courts and Redlands Blvd. for seven years.  While we lived there our cat, Luka, adopted us, despite the no pets policy at the apartment complex.  Then Mike was offered a job teaching English full time at IVC, and so we bought a house and moved to El Centro.  We have been here for just over a year.