spent my childhood in two wonderful homes, in two very different towns in Western Massachusetts, and with two sets of parents who loved me and gave me many wonderful opportunities. I rode horses and went sledding in one town, and took piano lessons and learned ballroom dancing in the other town. I always loved to draw and write and read books. I did that no matter where I was. I also had lots of older siblings who were my heroes, except when they were beating me up. I was a lucky kid. Now I am a lucky grown up.

After college in Upstate New York, I relocated clear across the country to Oregon where I went to architecture school. I met my husband there, and when we were done with all those all-nighters and had our architecture degrees, we moved to Seattle to become architects. I worked for several years for a large architecture firm designing retail stores, a job that I just loved. It was fast and creative, really hard work, and a lot of fun. Meanwhile, my husband and I moved to beautiful Bainbridge Island. I sometimes would see Orca whales on my daily commute across the water to Seattle! Now that was lucky.

My life of course was changed by the birth of my children. Suddenly the long hours in the architecture firm were no longer fun. So I took one last commuter ferry back to Bainbridge Island, and started my own design firm at home. At the same time I was reading beautiful books to my little children. Wheels started turning, and pretty soon nothing could stop me from pursuing my dream to make art and stories as lovely (or funny!) as those I was reading to my wee babes. I taught myself to paint, (fortunately I already knew a bit about drawing) and started to write, got chickens, some cats and a corgi, and lo, after some years of hard work, optimism, support from family and friends, and a little pluck, here I am: writing, drawing, and painting children’s books, in a studio in my own home, with my husband (who also works from home), my children and my pets nearby. How lucky is that?