| Biography: |
Dolores McGuire was born in Walnut Creek, California, the third generation of her family to be raised in the San Ramon Valley. She became aware of her love of writing in a grammar school English class. She later wrote for the high-school newspaper for four years and the yearbook, for three. However, she did not pursue writing as a career in her early years.
Dolores fell in love with and married the boy next door. Her husband passed away when she was twenty-five, leaving her with two small children. Working as a secretary, raising the children, and maintaining a household left little time for her dreams of writing, and they faded away. Other than writing lengthy letters to her friends and working on the family genealogy, it wasn’t until she was promoted to Project Manager for an insurance company in San Francisco that she started writing again. She wrote instruction manuals for each department and conducted training sessions at the home office in San Francisco as well as in the field offices. She was also on the staff of the company’s monthly newsletter.
On October 17, 1989, Dolores was three stories underground on the BART when the Loma Prieta quake occurred. The experience was terrifying. At that time, she remembered that her maternal grandfather’s first wife had died in the 1906 earthquake. In the weeks following the quake, Dolores decided to write her own story about the quake for her children and grandchildren. Though written, it had never left the file drawer until she attended meetings that Amicus Books Literary Lounge had on writing and publishing. Since then, she has been working on her biography and hopes to have Amicus Books publish it while she is still alive.
Dolores and her husband, Tom, moved to Browns Valley in 1992 and say they could not have found a more beautiful place to retire. Between them, they have seven children, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Dolores is a part-time secretary for the Peoria Cemetery District.
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