I've been writing as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is of playing the Authors card game with my parents as a preschooler, and my father and I co-wrote some "books" when I was 4. I've wanted to be a writer at least since 5, and I filled many notebooks over the years. When I was about 11 years old, I actually made up and typed this fake rejection letter (please excuse the punctuation & spelling). Though I also had fleeting desires to be a garbage collector, cartoonist, and actress, the desire to write has stuck around.

Growing up, I spent much of my time involved with theatre. My 6+ years in children's theatre got me involved with presenting stories for children from an early age. I majored in Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas, but always planned to write. After college, I spent 7½ years as a technical writer. I'm now staying home with my three wacky sons, ages 12, 9, & 3, while pursuing a career in creative writing. We had house rabbits for 10 years, and now have a cat named Pepper.

My first real publication was a humor article about my parents' rabbit, Dusty, published in the Austin American-Statesman in 1994. I still write articles, essays, and light verse, but my true love is fiction, and my goal is to write novels for children and young adults. My first published fiction, a middle-grade short story called "All's Fair at Science Fairs," appeared in On the Line magazine in March 2004, and I have since had short stories in a Tall Tales Press anthology, a Blooming Tree Press anthology, and the literary journal The First Line.

My favorite book growing up was Madeleine L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light, which I read at age 13. I've loved dolphins ever since. I also love popcorn, Tex-Mex food, and Dr Pepper.

Me at age 6

Me at age 15