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Every writer I know loves to read. That certainly is the case with me. When I was a kid, I would do my chores on Saturday morning with a book in hand (usually a Nancy Drew mystery). It was easy to multi-task if I was running the vacuum cleaner; not so easy if I was ironing. I remember describing to my mother, in great detail, the setting of a story I was reading, telling her what the campground in the book looked like—right down to the pine needles cushioning the ground. “You should have seen it!” I told my mom. She replied, “It’s like you were there.” And I was. Story has the power to draw in readers and take them to a completely new place. It was an experience I treasured and craved. At age ten, I knew I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. And that’s exactly what I did. 

For the past three decades, I’ve been blessed to have my work published in scores of newspapers and magazines, and I have authored thirteen books. I write what I write because I must—the subject matter lures me, hooks me, drives me to tell a story. And along the way, I hope my readers find themselves right smack dab in the middle of that story.


              Signing books at an event
             (photo by Herrera Photography)

Writing is fun... and so is working with collaborators! This is the group that produced Maria’s Mysterious Mission. From the left, the llama who inspired the story, the author (me!), illustrator Anna-Maria Crum, and photographer John Fielder.

 Promoting one of my kids’ picture books on a television news program.

AND doing one of
my favorite things:
Speaking to the all-boys book club, the Unimagined Group, 
at St. Rose of Lima School in Denver, Colorado
(photo by James Baca, Denver Catholic Register)