Born in St. Louis in 1957, I have always found words and writing both comforting and exhilarating. From an early age, I was fascinated by the magic of poetry.

In 1979, I graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where I learned to hone my writing craft. In 1980, I moved to the Chicago area, where I began a successful thirty-four-year career as a communication professional.

I loved developing creative ideas with colleagues for clients in a variety of industries. I made a good living doing that, but it seldom allowed time or room for me to develop my voice on a more personal level.

At age fifty-six, I traded the familiarity of corporate life and a regular paycheck for a new chapter as an author. That significant change catapulted me creatively.

Three years later, my husband Tom and I left Illinois for a warmer and simpler existence. We now make our home in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s a wide-open western life I never imagined as a child, surrounded by spiky saguaros, rugged buttes, and blazing sunsets.

Since 2014, I’ve written and published four memoirs and one book of poetry:

From Fertile Ground is a three-generation writer’s mosaic that examines the power of grief and our desire to make sense of our heritage, find our own path, and leave our mark on the world.

Tales of a Rollercoaster Operator is a collection of twenty-six funny and poignant essays about my favorite twists and turns growing up in Missouri in the 1960s and 1970s.

An Unobstructed View chronicles an ironic year of surprise, reflection, and transformation when my life takes an unexpected detour on my way from Illinois to Arizona.

I Think I’ll Prune the Lemon Tree is an anthology of thirty-nine true and fictional stories set against the warm and rugged landscape of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.

A Path I Might Have Missed is a probing collection of forty-two poems spanning thirty years. It is a tribute to love, loss, pain, discovery, truth, transformation–and the ever-present influences of nature.

I am proud to publish all of my stories under the Blues & Greens Press brand. It appears on the cover or inside each book. The name harkens back to a dream my mother recounted many times in the 1970s, when she was middle-aged and struggling to find greater peace in her life. “Stick to the blues and greens” whispered an ethereal voice. Decades later, the phrase has come to represent my own journey to create a fulfilling literary life.

Now in my late-sixties, I’ve also written lyrics and three librettos for the Phoenix Gay Men’s Chorus, a group I perform with on a regular basis.

I also continue to blog and recently have developed several stories of flash fiction, which explore the universal themes of identity, family, community, alienation, and transformation.

***

To join me on my blogging journey, send a message via my Contact Me page and I will add your email address to my subscriber list.