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Betty Hechtman
I grew up on the south side of Chicago and in a very busy
weekend, got married, graduated college and moved to Los
Angeles.
Although my degree is in Fine Arts, all I ever wanted to be
was a writer and I've been doing it in one form or another
for as long as I can remember. My shining moments in
elementary and high school always involved stories or poetry
I'd written. I wrote news stories and a weekly column in my
college newspaper. My first job out of college was working
on the newsletter of a finance company. I worked for a
public relations firm and wrote press releases and
biographies. Later I wrote proposals for video projects and
television shows that went through various stages of
development.
I tried writing screenplays and wrote three. I sold one and
another was a winner in a Writers' Digest contest.
I was lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom and did all
kinds of volunteering at my son's schools including editing
and writing several newsletters.
I wrote essays and small pieces that ran in the Los
Angeles Times, the Daily News and Woman's
Day among others. My short romantic and mystery fiction
appeared in Woman's World, and Futures magazine.
My affair with crochet began in Las Vegas. I had always had
a fascination with crochet, particularly granny squares, but
thought there was some magic involved with making them that
was beyond me. And then everything changed that day in Vegas
when I saw the kids' kit in FAO Schwartz. If the
instructions were easy enough for kids, I thought they might
work for me.
My first granny square was missing a corner, but when I
tried again, all four corners were there. I was in awe of my
own accomplishment. I had found the magic. I went granny
square crazy until pretty soon I didn't need directions
anymore. Then I learned there were more squares than just
basic grannies and I made squares with sunflowers in the
middle and other patterns. I moved beyond squares and made
flowers, hearts, bookmarks and more.
I was in love with crochet and began to make scarves,
purses, afghans, and shawls. I started carrying my hooks
everywhere. A plane trip became a pile of granny square wash
cloths, or part of a shawl. A vacation in Hawaii turned into
a tote bag.
And now I get to write about it...
Books:
 A Stitch in Crime, February 2010
By Hook or by Crook, June 2009
Dead Men Don't Crochet, December 2008
Hooked on Murder, May 2008
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