Contact the Author

“My love of writing began with reading. Growing up, reading was one of my favorite activities. Every year I joined my library’s summer reading club and read stacks of books - chapter books, picture books, non-fiction books . . . all kinds of books! I loved to discover new places and people through reading.

I still spend hours hanging out in my library reading the newest children’s books. I'm fascinated by the colorful photos and facts in non-fiction books. I enjoy the beautiful illustrations and carefully woven stories of picture books. I love to read and I love to write!”

Q and A with the Author

Q: What was your favorite book when you were young?

A: "I have four favorites - The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Boxcar Children (the original) , and The Toothpaste Millionaire (This book came in one of my Weekly Reader Book Club shipments. It's a clever story about a boy named Rufus who made a fortune by making and selling his own toothpaste.)"

Q: What books do you enjoy writing the most?

A: "Tough question! I enjoy writing books on many different topics. Of course, I like writing about science and nature. I am fascinated by famous historical figures and love to write biographies. It's fun to discover quirky and unusual facts about animals and put that interesting information into books. I also spend a lot of time outside, so I find writing about outdoor activities and sports is exciting too. The list could go on and on . . ."

Q: How did you become an author?

A: "My answer to this question is long, because like many writers my journey to become an author was also rather long. Interestingly, when I was growing up science and math were my favorite classes. I never, ever thought I would be a writer. But looking back, I can see how my interest in writing grew through the years.

The first story I wrote was in first grade. In response to my teacher’s question – “What would you do if you found a candy tree?” I cranked out a whopping four pages! Although I misspelled 18 words (and wasn’t overly concerned with neatmess) my first grade teacher, Ms. Hudson, encouraged me with kind words, stars, and a smiley face.

Around the age of ten, my family began to spend every Christmas on the tiny island of Tortola. For two weeks we had no T.V. or telephone (this was before cell phones, laptops, or iPods). In the evening I often wrote in a journal and drew maps of the places we had sailed during the day. These trip journals were my first books!

In fourth grade, my teacher assigned us to write a letter to our favorite authors. After careful consideration (I had lots of favorite authors!) I decided to write Beverly Cleary. To my amazement, she sent back a handwritten letter with fancy cursive writing!

Then I wrote letters to more of my favorite authors and illustrators: Lois Lenski, Bil Keane (cartoon illustrator), Madeleine L’Engle (Wrinkle in Time), Carolyn Haywood, and Lois Darling (she illustrated Beverly Cleary’s books). I soon received many more hand-written notes. I discovered authors were interesting, kind, real people who cared about the children who read their books! And I secretly wondered what it would be like to be an author.

Following my first love of science and math, I studied mechanical engineering in college. Science and math classes filled my schedule, but I also enjoyed writing papers for my only English class. After graduation, I worked at McDonnell Douglas in California as a test engineer on Delta IV rockets. NASA uses these rockets to launch weather satellites. I often worked in a “clean room” (a clean lab where people wore a white suit and hat - think lunch-lady look) and in an underground bomb shelter. Rocket parts were tested there in case they failed and exploded. Later I moved back to my home state, Indiana, where I designed brake boosters (round metal things that help cars stop) for Ford.

All these jobs were exciting and interesting, but I never dreamed one day I’d find something I love as much as writing books for children!

I left the engineering world in 1993 when I became a mom. I was at the Tour de France bike race in Paris (yes, I saw Lance Armstrong) when a special baby girl was born in the U.S. My husband and I got on a plane the next day. We flew home and fell in love with, and adopted, our new baby daughter. One year later I gave birth to our son.

The years that followed were full change. We moved to three different states, into four houses - all in twelve months. This was rough for me because I like peace and order. During all this commotion, there was always one activity that relaxed and quieted the whole family - reading. I literally read hundreds of picture books every week to my children.

And as the years went on, it seems my future writing career is best expressed by the following equation:

(2 kids) X (12 hours/day) X (7 days/week) X (children’s books)² =
2 happy kids + 1 mom who really wanted to write kids books