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For the past fifteen years, I've been a full-time children's writer with a sidebar in writing for adults about kidlit. I've written one playful fiction picture book, but my real passion is lively nonfiction.

I've had more than 25 books published, but my proudest moments are:

I Bought a Baby Chicken (Boyds Mills Press)
Dinosaur Mummies (Darby Creek Pub)
Albino Animals (Darby Creek Pub)
Wild Dogs (Darby Creek Pub)
Tales of the Cryptids (Darby Creek Pub)
Random House Dinosaur Travel Guide
Mysteries of the Mummy Kids (Darby Creek Pub)
Wild Horses (Darby Creek Pub)
Dinosaur Parade (Lark/Sterling)
Operation Rescue: Saving the Baghdad Zoo
(HarperCollins/Greenwillow, Fall 2010)

Tanya Dean is the editor that saw a spark in my quirky nonfiction first, beyond magazine editorial sources -- and I actually wrote for her at Guidepost for Teens before we worked together on books. But I've been in awe of Virginia Duncan at Greenwillow as I've put together the Baghdad Zoo book. I hope it's the first of many nonfiction books there.

My shorter nonfiction has been published in Highlights for Children, Boys Life, Guidepost for Kids, Guidepost for Teens, Teen PEOPLE, Children's Digest, Child Life, Ask!, Dig, US Kids, the Chicago Tribune KidNews , the Atlanta Journal Constitution News for Kids, Kidzone, Curiocity for Kids, and dozens of other publications. My reviews have been featured in Writer's Digest, Book Magazine, Booklist, Book Links, BookSense, the Washington Post, the Denver Post, the AJC, the Spokesman Review, and other publications. I've also written for Alice Pope at the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market for a LOT of years, Writer's Market, Novels and Short Story Market, Guide to Literary Agents, and other writing and literature staples.

I also work as novelist Chris Crutcher's personal assistant because I love working for Chris and because he needed an assistant REAL BADLY. Lucky me, I was in the right place at the right time. He's trying to help me learn how to write YA fiction. Someday, we'll succeed.

I'm a single mom in Spokane, Washington. My two daughters are 18 and 25 now and both are writers as well. I have two dogs, too many cats and a four foot iguana named Gigantor.

For the past fifteen years, I've been a full-time children's writer with a sidebar in writing for adults about kidlit. I've written one playful fiction picture book, but my real passion is lively nonfiction. I've had more than 25 books published, but my proudest moments are: I Bought a Baby Chicken (Boyds Mills Press) Dinosaur Mummies (Darby Creek Pub) Albino Animals (Darby Creek Pub) Wild ... More