Writers I Love:
Oscar Wilde, Georges Simenon, Colette, Robert B. Parker, Helene Hanff, Sarah Ruhl, Nora Ephron, Jeanette Winterson, Brian Doyle, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Amor Towles
Inspired to restart my writing career as an indie publisher by:
Sculptor Louise Nevelson, who said, “I didn’t really hit my stride till I turned seventy.”
Biographical info from my forthcoming book, Short-Form Funny:
I once had a nightmare that I crossed the street and realized I was a Republican.
Short-Form info about me:
My full name is Cristina Luisa White. I was born in Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, several weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Long-Form info:
My Parents
My father Ismael was born and raised in Los Angeles. He served as a Sergeant in the United States Army and was killed in action in the Pacific near the end of World War II. Among his commendations and awards: the Purple Heart, the Army Presidential Unit Citation, and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal. I never knew him, but when I left the Philippines and arrived in California at age seven, my father’s whole family welcomed me with open arms.
My mother Louise was born and raised in Manila. She was a professional seamstress and a fiercely proud American. Separated from my father by an ocean when Pearl Harbor was attacked, my mother was on her own with a babe in arms (me) when the Japanese began their occupation of the islands. Because she refused to renounce her American citizenship, we spent the first two years of the war in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. After our release, my mother served the war effort by joining the Filipino Resistance and helping to undermine the Japanese occupation forces.
Education and Early Life
I have an MA Degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University and a BA Degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. I began writing at age eleven, making up ghost stories on the bus ride to and from school. It was that same year that I first experienced the magic of theatre, when I saw the opera Hansel and Gretel. The house lights went down, the curtain went up, and I was hooked. An Army brat, I got involved with local theatre wherever my family was stationed. I read every play I could get my hands on and wrote my first play when I was seventeen.
I began earning income as a writer in college, when an ambitious new children’s theatre troupe took me on as their company playwright. I wrote one play each year during my four years at San Francisco State, and supplemented the money needed for college expenses with royalties from the touring productions of my plays.
Work and Career
I’ve had my share of nine to five jobs, usually as an administrative assistant or an office manager, at UCLA and with nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In my own field, I’ve held positions as a theatre director for college, independent, and community theatres, a college and university instructor in Psychology and Theatre Arts, and a Tai Chi instructor for community centers and nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and the greater Los Angeles area.
Travel
Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Monaco, and thirty-three of the fifty states.
Meaning, Purpose, Pleasure
Performance arts and the healing arts, my two dedicated interests, continue to dominate and influence the work I pursue. Being a writer is at my core, providing a lifeline to meaning, purpose, and pleasure. Though this writing life I love is not always smooth sailing, I keep on keeping on—I figure if there’s no wind, row.
I need and keep constant in my life: books, music, laughter, fine art, and good movies. I am sustained by the beauty of the natural world, my friendships, a sense of harmony in my home, and the joys of a life shared with my beloved Donna Jayne.
The Power of Place
My research about the potential healing effects of environment inspired me to write The Healing Environment. That same research eventually led me to study Feng Shui and to become a certified Feng Shui practitioner. I believe we are deeply affected by place, and that place has the power to transform us.
Words I live by:
Keep calm and carry on.
“Easy reading is damned hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
“I love writing. It’s the paperwork that gets me.” – Peter De Vries
What my writing life feels like:
“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon, I put it in again.” – Oscar Wilde