I knew I wanted to be a writer way back in the 8th grade when my Social Studies teacher handed out a mimeographed sheet (think laser copying in days of yore) to everybody in the class. Then she walked up-and-down the aisles between our desks, her high heels clicking, as she read aloud my poem, “A House Divided Cannot Stand.” Nobody knew who wrote it. But everybody listened. Everybody liked it! I was hooked on writing from that moment on!
I was born and grew up in Maryland, went to college in West Virginia, went to nursing school and became an R.N. in North Carolina (where I met my husband), and moved to Lancaster County, PA., also known as Pennsylvania Dutch/horse&buggy country (and very close to Hershey, PA., where the chocolate’s made). It was a great place to raise my four kids, and I enjoyed a long career as a feature writer/reporter/reviewer for the Lancaster Sunday News in Lancaster, PA.
In 2008, I left my staff position at the Lancaster Sunday News to return to school. I earned an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont, in 2010.
My late husband, George, was a great adventurer. Thanks to him, I traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, Tahiti, China, Korea, Mexico, most of the islands of the Caribbean, England, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Vancouver-to-New-Brunswick in Canada, and all over the U.S. During out 40-plus years together, we sailed five times under actual sail on ships of the Star Clipper line, and narrow-boated on canals in northern England.
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- George meeting a dolphin
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- George with his favorite dog, Molly
In the fall of 2016, I left snow behind and moved to Alabama, close to my middle son and my two oldest grandkids. I’ve made new writer friends and stayed in close touch with my treasured old ones. Every summer now, I visit my other three kids and four grandkids in PA. It’s not so much a vacation as an all-family-all-the-time extravaganza!
I live with my Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Rue, and have recently learned to love cats, especially my daughter’s cats, Piper and Squish.
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- Rue
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- Piper
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- Squish
I’ve been lucky enough to win three Dog Writers Association of America Maxwell medals, two Carolyn Field honors (the Pennsylvania state-level equivalent of a Newbery honor), the Nebraska Golden Sower Award, the Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award, a Storytellers’ World Award honor, an IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Award) and found my way onto many children’s choice lists, including the IRC/CBC joint children’s choice list, and lists in Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) since 1995, I’ve had books published in Polish and German; had books chosen as Junior Library Guild Selections; and had almost every kids’ book I’ve ever written picked up by Scholastic, either for Scholastic School Book Fairs or as new paperback editions with brand new covers. Yeah!!!
