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I have published two picture books for children. Mr. Worry: A Story about OCD, was chosen by International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to be included in the Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2005 catalog and traveling exhibit. I Can’t Stop: A story about Tourette syndrome, received a 2006 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio award. Many of my stories have appeared in magazines for children.

I grew up in Newburgh, New York where I could often be found reading a book under the weeping willow tree. In elementary school, a friend and I picked our library books together, so that we could trade books half way through the week.

While I loved to read, I did not always write stories. In college I studied to be a Speech Therapist and I continue to provide speech therapy services in nursing homes. However, as I read books to my children, I realized that I wanted to write stories that children would love. The first stories I published were in children’s magazines. Mr. Worry, my first book, published in 2004, is close to my heart because my son has OCD. I feel that books are a wonderful way to explain a difficult topic and are a useful place to start a discussion with a child. So I wrote a story about OCD to help children and their families deal with this difficult disorder.

An author spends a great deal of time alone (except for the characters running around in her mind) weaving words together into sentences, sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into magic-if she’s lucky! After a long lonely day of weaving an author might wonder if it’s worth it. That’s just when an author needs to meet a reader. And a reader who meets an author might just want to try their hand at weaving words together too. Because of this, I enjoy doing school visits and talking with students about reading, being an author, and different disorders or disabilities.

I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana with my husband Keith, my children, Evan (20) and Beth (18), who have always been able to talk me into buying them a book, and two crazy cats. There are books everywhere in this house of readers-on bookshelves, on tables, in boxes in the basement, even in the bathroom.

I have published two picture books for children. Mr. Worry: A Story about OCD, was chosen by International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to be included in the Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2005 catalog and traveling exhibit. I Can’t Stop: A story about Tourette syndrome, received a 2006 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio award. Many of my stories have appeared in magazines ... More