About the Author

Jill Pipkin lives in California in an old Victorian house. Before coming to California with her husband and pets in 1965, she attended both state universities in Florida, majoring in math and physics, and also attended school in Switzerland where she obtained a French teaching degree. At the Universiity of California at Berkeley she enrolled in the PhD program in High Energy Physics, but eventually despaired of the heavy reliance on giant machines and computers required for research. She left the University to join the Peace Corps to go to Kenya. Finding the program too restrictive, she returned to Berkeley to search for a new life and a soulmate, the relationship with her husband having foundered along with her academic career. She finds new friends -- hippies -- but soon finds their lifestyle too dependent on alcohol and drugs. She travles to Mexico to photograph ancient Aztec and Mayan ruins. Back in Berkeley she teaches physcs and her childhood interest in art is suddenly reawakened when a friend show her pictures of ancient mosaics and tiles in Istanbul and she travels there to photograph them. A challenging love affair with a Turkish man develops and she must flee to Tehran to escape his vengeful wife. In Tehran she teaches English. Eventually she must return to Berkeley. She begins work as a writer for a large company. The indoor desk job is anti-thema and she seeks a new career in real estate. At the present, she teaches photography and writes creative non fiction.