I was born and raised in the PNW, always with Mount Rainier dominating the horizon.

My love of writing began with a love of reading. Some of my favorite childhood memories were of story time at the little yellow library on Main Street. I was eager to read and tried to teach myself at the age of 4. With that in mind, my mother opted to enroll me in kindergarten right after I turned 5 rather than wait another year. 

I quickly learned to read and soon after to write. And boy howdy, did I love to write. While this skill was praised by my teachers, it was met with some concern as my style and subject grew more mature than was considered acceptable for my age. (I’ve always been one to push the envelope.) I discovered Christopher Pike and later, Stephen King, making my first true love the horror genre, which continues to this day. I wrote my first novel “The Night” in sixth grade. I was proud of all the creative ways I found to kill off my characters (still am), but that manuscript has been lost to time. I’m hoping it will turn up one day.

Over the years, I started and stopped a number of short stories but lacked the confidence to see those projects through. Those ideas never truly left but are still waiting in the recesses of my mind for their time to come. And they will come. It was a creative writing course in community college when I completed my first short story, “The Impression of Leaves”. I handed it in and forgot all about it. Months later, I received the call that “Impression” had won the Elizabeth Breen Prose Award. It was that point I started to believe in my ability again. What was left was a matter of life and discipline.

It would be another decade before I attempted my first novel, “Beartooth”, and upon reaching the halfway point, I set it aside believing that my technique and skill as a writer had not grown enough to complete the tale as I had envisioned it in my head. Another year passed, until one day while hiking the Owyhigh Trail in Mount Rainier National Park, inspiration struck. The initial idea that became “Wonderland struck like a lightning bolt, and had it locked in my head by the time I completed my hike that day. The journey of my debut novel was incredible and challenging. I learned that writing was the easy part, the rest requires an extraordinary amount of work, patience and the ability to overcome self-doubt again and again. Proving to myself I could write a novel was only the first step. Only a few months into working on “Wonderland”, the idea came for my second work of fiction, “Lester”, which was published in October 2024. My third novel is currently in progress.

My husband and I continue to live in Lahar Country and recently became empty nesters. Thankfully, we are still young and young at heart. We plan to continue traveling the world and embracing every bit of life that when we can. I love to cook, puzzle and go on long walks through the forest with a backpack and snacks. My best ideas are still found in nature.

I do hope you enjoy the stories I tell and the characters you meet therein. It is my wish that you find something in them that speaks to you the way they have spoken to me. I hope you will follow along as I pursue my lifelong dream.