About the Author & Finding Your Way Around this Website



My first job was the best fit really: Little Red Riding Hood, and on alternating days, Snow White. My career went downhill from there. Though I seldom believe war is the answer, my first career job was buying missiles. Later, I proudly managed an environmental engineering firm focused on improving air quality; following that I was horrified to find myself working undercover at a quarry blasting a beautiful canyon. I adored co-hosting a Big Band Swing radio show with an amazing mentor and on my solo nights, I read Spanish poetry to El Paso and Juarez. I have years of war stories as a general civil law practitioner in PA & was a lawyer for a fast company in Austin during the dot.com era. I loved teaching business law to grad students at UTEP. I had mixed feelings about being a substitute teacher in rural VA, but it allowed me to be near my young children in their years of uncertainty after my husband died in a hiking accident. I liked being a Concierge and Historian at an elegant resort. Managing a community library was very cool. I was in my element on my organic vineyard and farm, decimated by deer during a five-year stint of managing a luxury apartment community on the water in St. Pete. I wrote my first novel during my tenure there: Renting the Veil. I woke up one day and decided to quit my job and backpack across Europe. And I did...for four months, as long as I could on my visa and my bank account. I am back home on the farm now. Well, now and then. Perpetually restless and hungry, I have too many interests to contain in a lifetime. The ones at the forefront right now are organic farming - I dream of reviving my vineyard, am writing a travel series, Oliver's Travels, to guide or simply amuse other adventurers, am studying but never really learning astronomy, learning Spanish and German, traveling as much as I can and of course listening to live music. Am updating this yet again as I've had a few more or less employment gigs over the past few years that merit mentioning and a couple that don't, so I won't. I have lawyered off and on, doing doc review for UnitedLex in Richmond, which introduced me to a wonderful group of friends and a vibrant city. I worked as a job coach for a year and a half for disabled adults, a very emotionally fulfilling job which opened my heart every single day I worked with my clients. I spent a summer at Bryce Canyon National Park as the Concierge at the Lodge, an amazing experience, not only because of the fascinating characters I met, the new world it opened, but because Bryce is a treasure, geologically and for its night skies, well actually, for everything about it. I've been teaching little Chinese kids English online, though that opportunity is dwindling per decree by the Chinese government, but it has been a wonderful experience, zooming into their homes and meeting their families and pets. I've spent a couple recent winters working Everglades National Park: enchanting. And a couple recent Springs working in garden centers. Too, I write for an environmental blog, Greentumble. I love both dancing across fields in gypsy skirts at festivals and dressing to the nines, slipping into a velvet seat in a gorgeous opera house after an amazing meal with a ridiculously fine wine...and then getting lost in a sublime aria. I have known tragedy and ecstasy and am truly grateful for the richness of my life and for my amazing family and friends all over the world.


           

 FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THIS WEBSITE


Viva has random observations about life itself. 

It also has links to environmental articles published in my role as part of the Editorial Team at Greentumble at Environmental Articles.

Too, I have written four novels thus far:

Renting the Veil, which can be described a thousand different ways. Today I will label it a psychological thriller. It's available under my pen name Eliza Hewitt from Amazon and Kindle.

Cloud 8, a fun and fulfilling fantasy of gods steering the social and political climate of a world. Again available under my pen name Eliza Hewitt from Amazon and Kindle.

Oliver's Travels, Book One 
The first book is a series of the adventures of a young man traveling the world with no set itinerary and on a shoestring budget. Staying in hostels, airbnbs, in a hammock or on a couch, he is less a tourist than a wanderer. His only mantra is to stay present in the moment and drink deeply of life. At times hilarious and at other moments haunting, his adventures and misadventures are an authentic guide to the places he roams. It's available under my pen name Eliza Hewitt from Amazon and Kindle.


Oliver's Travels, Book Two 
In Book Two, Oliver continues his adventures backpacking on a pittance and living like a Prince… as he explores the lands from France to fantastical Barcelona, across sunflower fields and into the oldest cities of Spain, dropping down from the Strait of Gibralter into mysterious medinas in Africa, slipping back up to the colorful Italian Riviera and then seeking immersion in the artistic splendor of Florence.Again available under my pen name Eliza Hewitt from Amazon and Kindle.

Links to all books are included on their respective home pages.

Street art includes well, classic street art painted on buildings and sometimes architectural details or stunning landscapes that feel like they should qualify. Street art captures the zeitgeist while the architecture and landscapes feel more classical, more like the canvas.