In my beginnings . . . My early years consisted of running through sprinklers, sitting in wash tub “swimming pools”, playing in the dirt and riding bikes up and down the road in a little-known farm area of Michigan. Imagination was the best toy. I began to imagine stories of my own and won the young authors contest for my grade level. The reward was meeting and talking to a published author. It wasn’t until I had moved from home that writing stories became part of my life.

Off into the World . . .  I dragged my “do it my way” self with me for a few years beyond high school, into college and beyond, to Alaska and a teaching job. God stirred the pot and kindled the fire. He knew where He wanted to get me. Writing became an escape from all that I disliked about my situation. I wrote newsletters home, poems and stories. 

Various Season . . . The sun came upon a new chapter of life. Having resigned from teaching, I found myself working a maid job at remote Zachar Bay Lodge on Kodiak Island in Alaska. I learned a lot about myself that summer. I learned about God’s love, an unconditional love, through two of the most important people in my life: my mom and my now husband, Andy. Both loved me in my brokenness and helped me to discover missing pieces that needed to be restored. However, I was not prepared for the loneliness of having a child in the remote setting of Zachar Bay Lodge. My focus was on her while the focus of the rest of the crew was working. There were no neighbors nor anyplace in which to go. Writing was no longer just an escape but a type of therapy.

“Growing” a story . . .Life’s experiences have helped to shape many of my fiction stories. In each of my stories written to date, I can tell you of an event in my life that paralleled or inspired certain parts of the story. Sometimes I am in the story as well.  I am just starting my career as a published author. However, I have been an unpublished author for decades. And I will continue to write what God lays upon my heart well into the future.