About the Author

I grew up in the small town of Pinconning, Michigan, where my fellow baby boomer neighbors and I played from early morning until the street lights came on at night. We had nothing but our imaginations to keep us occupied and the freedom to explore wherever our bikes could take us. It was a delicious childhood filled with creativity, adventure, and days filled with possibilities.

My parents had instilled a love of nature in my two older brothers and me. Sunday afternoons were spent hiking the same wooded trails that my father and his siblings had once memorized as kids. Every walk through the woods gave us gifts … deer and rabbits crossing our path, huckleberry bushes offering bent branches heavy with sweetness, wildflowers like jack-in-the-pulpit sharing their secrets, and the fresh scent of pine trees enveloping everything. All these riches were free and ours to examine and marvel at any time. How could I not eventually be drawn to haiku which focuses on the singular wondrous moments found in nature? Seemingly simple, yet profound moments. Nature themes appear in most of what I write, including my first picture book, Good Friends Stick Together.

Although my brothers and I were read to every night, it wasn’t until I took college courses in children literature that I fell in love with picture books.  Cynthia Rylant’s Henry and Mudge series, David Small’s Imogene’s Antlers, and Jacquelyn Wood-son’s Brown Girl Dreaming continue to be wonderful sources of inspiration as is my favorite poet, the incomparable Mary Oliver.

In my leisure time, I enjoy nature walking, biking, and traveling with my husband. We recently became city dwellers and still can’t get over the convenience of having shops, restaurants, concerts, and parks just steps from our front door.  Listening to music, playing finger style baritone ukulele, and knitting (all under the wise and watchful eye of my cat, Bo) offer moments of reflection, perfect for story and poetry ideas to seed and germinate.