Biography

My Life Today (July 2010)

My books list “Elizabeth Baker” as the author of roughly eight volumes. While that autograph is not a pseudonym, you’ll find me answering to several other names including “Mom” “Granny” “Grammy” and “Dr. Baker.” And, if you were visiting my home town, you might run into someone who knows “Miss Judy,” the lady who spent a few years working as the janitor for Bethel Baptist Church and Academy. That’s me, too!

I currently live in a small home in the country that I share with my mother, Beth. We are both widows and have formed a household together for twenty years. Since I’m officially “retired” I work four to six hours a day, six days a week as a writer. I’m also involved in church work, household chores, a little gardening and taking care of my mom as year by year she grows weaker.

Family? There are a lot of us. At the latest count I have two sons, two daughters, two sons-in-laws, two daughter-in-laws, eight granddaughters, seven grandsons, two grand-daughter-in-laws, three great-grandsons, and two great-granddaughter s! The only one missing is my husband, Bill, whom I married at age 16 and left me a widow in 1979 at the age of 35. I had published my first book shortly after turning 30 and the second just months before Bill was killed. After that, I turned my attention to our cattle ranch and spent five years running the spread single handed.

Education? Well, I suppose I have enough. Like most things in my life education has been cobbled together over time—a bit like a my grandmother’s patchwork quilts. I dropped out of high school at 17. Bill was overseas in the military at that time and I missed him terribly. That was back in the days when married high school students were frowned on by the authorities (we were bad examples to the others). There was also a lot of stress at home where I lived with my mom, dad and younger siblings. In the end, it was just easier to drop out. I dropped back in after the arrival of both my 40th birthday and my first grandchild when I was provisionally admitted to the local Jr. College on the strength of a GED that I had earned shortly before the publication of my first book. It took a lot of effort and just over four years of time, but I completed Associate, Bachelor and Master Degrees. Since editors no longer seemed interested in my ability as a writer, I opted for state certification as a Licensed Professional Counselor. The, filled with fear and no small amount of reluctance, I pulled myself away from my rural roots and landed in Dallas where I practiced counseling for the next fifteen years. I was in my mid-fifties when I again returned to school completing a Doctor of Philosophy in religion and society from Oxford Graduate School and writing a dissertation (groan) on philosophical anthropology.

Career? That depends on which one you have in mind. I’ve been a janitor, teacher, cattle rancher, counselor and writer—plus a few odd jobs along the way. As for writing, it has spanned the last thirty years with books scattered out every three to seven years. In many ways, I suppose writing in the past has been more of an occasional passion than a career, but it has always been what I most enjoy and has certainly been the most challenging of all I have ever attempted. Recently I’ve returned to writing as a full time career and, if the Lord wills, I plan to finish out my journey on earth following this path.

Dreams? Like everyone I have a few. I’d like to build a house with plenty of room for visitors, offices, living space, state-of-the-art computer connections and a library big enough to hold at least a thousand volumes. And, eventually, I want to take what I believe about the worlds of spirit and flesh, putting the principles in a highly entertaining set of novels where angels and humans share lead roles equally.

Will all or any of those things come to pass? Perhaps. But, I know He can make me content with or without fulfilled dreams. I am old enough to remember when television first became popular and I one show began each commercial break with “stay tuned, boys and girls, you’ll never guess what adventures lie ahead!” I think God has designed life to be a lot like that and, for myself, I can’t wait to see what is around the next bend.