All About Me

I've always loved:

Good food

(Fun Fact: Chocolate pudding also makes a yummy facial) 

Cats

(I want to be a crazy cat lady when I grow up) 

Reading

(My favorite outings as a kid were the library and Pickwick Bookshop in hollywood, where I'd run up and down the long wooden aisles after selecting a book)

I was born in Los Angeles, CA, and have lived here most of my life. This is my first day at Baldwin Hills Elementary School.

I always wanted to be a writer. My first foray into journalism was “The Fallsgrove Star,” a newspaper I banged out on my mom’s Smith-Corona typewriter in fourth grade  I sold it to friends and relatives for 50 cents per year.

After graduating from Cal State University, Los Angeles, with a Journalism degree, I got a job editing a travel magazine. 

Getting paid to travel, write and take photos? Best. Job. Ever!

Unfortunately, the travel magazine was sold to a New York publisher who hired new staffers. I began writing freelance articles for dozens of magazines and newspapers including: The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and other travel magazines. 

The photos above show me interviewing a famous Japanese psychic.

As a staff Hollywood reporter at the The National Enquirer I had adventures like getting tossed out of Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn and attending O.J. Simpson’s wedding to             Nichole Brown. 

I also wrote three unauthorized celebrity biographies: Vanna White, Robin Williams, and The New Elizabeth (about Elizabeth Taylor.)  

My husband, Noriyasu Tani, and I moved to Tokyo, Japan, so I could learn Japanese and experience living in another country. During that time I wrote for many airline inflight magazines, The Japan Economic Journal and other international publications. Living in Japan was amazing (loved those friendly deer), but after four years it was time to return to the States. 

Since Nori worked as a producer for a top Japanese quiz show called “Naruhodo! The World," we started a TV production company called Robin/Tani Media Factory when we moved back to Venice, CA. Traveling around the USA filming Japanese TV shows was really fun, but required long hours. We worked on documentaries, quiz and travel shows, sporting events, music videos and interviewed many celebrities. 

After we adopted two kids from Cambodia—Samnang and Vanna—I stopped going on location with the Japanese crews because I wanted to be with our kids and concentrate on other projects.

 I produced and directed an award-winning children’s yoga video series called “I Can Do…Yoga!” (Of course Sam and Vanna were in it!)

Now I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream—writing fiction. 

I recently completed an upper Middle Grade fantasy called:

Esther Hanada’s Mega Manga Mix-Up and I’m actively seeking representation.

You can read the synopsis and first few chapters here. 

Last but not least, these are our fur babies: (from left) Pipsqueak (the Devil Spawn), Roxy (the Alpha Bitch) and Dusty (Duster-Buster)