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About Me

Click here to listen to my authentic Boston accent

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Most authors start their journey at a much younger age than I was when I took the plunge into creative writing.  It started when I was closing my mother's apartment after she died, and I found three pennies in a neat stack on a windowsill in an otherwise completely empty apartment.

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My mother was always on the lookout for a dropped penny. Everyone thought she

shouldn't care about a lowly penny. She walked with her eyes down scanning the

sidewalks for stranded coins, because it had value and someone might need it.

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I was sure those pennies left for me were a magical message, and I wanted to write
their story in a picture book. The book was in my head, but I didn't know how to get it on paper, so 

I dove into writing classes, workshops, and SCBWI  (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conferences to learn the craft.

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I never wrote that picture book but I found the magic of those pennies writing middle grade and young adult fiction. Along the way, I learned how much I love writing. Once I started, I've never stopped.

 

 When I'm not writing, you might find me reading, exercising, or doing therapeutic ironing (yes, there is such a thing).

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Image by David Trinks
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Waves

If you want to know more about me

  1. I'm an ocean person. I love the way it smells, and the ice cream tastes so much better in the salt water air. My favorite ocean place is Cape Cod.

  2. In the summer after my junior year in high school, I visited twelve European cities in seven weeks!

  3. Once I got heckled moderating a candidates’ debate and the police had to remove the person from the auditorium. Scary.

  4. I attended an event in the Rose Garden of the White House when Bill Clinton was president.

  5. I started kindergarten at four and graduated high school a couple of months after my 17th birthday⏤an early bloomer.

  6. I wrote poetry in college about relationships and the Vietnam War. Perhaps that’s the true start of my creative writing career.

  7. I’m scared of bees and yet once I volunteered to help take down a bee’s nest at summer camp.

  8. I’m not an adventurous eater just like twelve-year-old Rocky in Swallowed by a Secret.

  9. I love to read historical nonfiction that is written like a novel. My favorite author of this genre is Erik Larson.

  10. I hate writing all these “I” sentences in this list. That really isn’t me. I’m an introvert and don't like to talk about myself.

  11. Doing author interviews on podcasts gives me anxiety, but so far every one of the interviewers has been so kind and put me totally at ease.

  12. I may add more to this list so check back soon to learn more embarrassing or interesting facts about me.

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