
More about me...
I became a writer on my eighth birthday when I received my first diary (complete with bedazzled unicorn cover and microscopic lock-and-key
—naturally).
I’ve written almost every day since.
In my life B.C. (“Before Children”), I was a freelance magazine and newspaper journalist. I wrote about everything — from a cover story for The New York Observer about one of Donald Trump’s towers threatening to block Walter Cronkite’s river view (I kid you not), to features about non-profits for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, to relationship pieces for Bride’s and Ladies Home Journal. Before that, I was a Senior Editor at American Demographics (MUCH more interesting than it sounds), where I wrote about what motivates people’s lifestyle and purchasing decisions.
Five years ago, after almost a decade of full-time Mommying, I realized that I desperately missed playing with words, but didn’t want to go back to print journalism. I enrolled in a local writing class called “Where Do I Begin?” and the instructor provided weekly prompts. What began flowing out of me were funny, punny stories and poems — often, in rhyme.
(Wait, WHAT?!)
My teacher, a middle-grade author, suggested my stories might be fodder for picture books and children's poems. As a mom, I’d loved reading books by rhyming masters like Julia Donaldson, Chris Van Dusen, Deborah Diesen, Lori Mortensen and (of course) Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein to my two boys, but I knew nothing about writing KidLit. My teacher introduced me to the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and I attended my first writing conference in June 2016.
My mind was blown.
I haven’t looked back.