Thank you for checking out my website! Please read on for a bit of introduction to me and my writing.

About Me

I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter, and friend. I’m a historian by training and trade and a museum nerd. I am a church-goer and try to live by Proverbs 3:5-6, even though I often fall short. I am an Army Brat to two veteran parents, as well as a Marine Grandfather, Army Reserve Grandfather, and World War II Army Veteran Father in Law. I am a James Madison University Duke and a Rice Owl. I travel at every opportunity I get whether it’s camping at a state park with my family or taking students abroad to experience the world. I love to bake, particularly cinnamon-based desserts. I have dogs and cats who add both love and annoyance to my life on a daily basis. I am a bit of a traditionalist yet also independent and professional. I love antiques and old books, and my husband has had to add book shelves to almost every room of our house.

I have wanted to write at least since I was in junior high, but maybe before, yet at the same time, I have always written. My best friend and I in 7th grade crafted a fantasy story set in our own make-believe land. I kept diaries off and on my whole life, wrote prolific notes with my friends in high school that necessitated entire notebooks to contain, and wrote letters regularly to distant friends and family. I wrote essays and papers throughout college and produced a nearly 400-page dissertation in graduate school. Now I write classroom lectures, professional journal articles, and more emails than I would have thought possible twenty years ago.

Recently, I found myself returning more and more to my 7th grade dreams of writing novels. Somewhere in high school these dreams were labeled “childish” and “unrealistic,” and I took those words to heart far more than I should have, but no longer. In my grown-up days of motherhood and professional success, I don’t care what immature high schoolers think of my goals anymore, and in fact, I want my own son to realize that he can accomplish his goals no matter how far-fetched they may seem. And no matter how much others try to crush them. But what to write? My favorite book of all time is Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. I read it first when I was in the 7th grade. (Coincidence?) My grandmother gave me a copy for Christmas and I have cherished it ever since. I love the Sullivan movies, I tracked down the Lenox houses on EBay, and I dream of owning a first edition. (The closest I have come is a 1911) In one of the books of Montgomery’s series, Gilbert tells Anne to write what she knows, a lesson she takes to heart particularly as he falls ill and she nearly loses him. I too have tried to incorporate a bit of this advice by writing of what I know – perhaps in a different era or a different location than that in which I live, but still abiding by the themes and messages I know and value.

In everything I write, I hope to learn from the works that have touched me most over the course of my life. I want to incorporate the innocence of Anne in Avonlea, the companionship of the Lord of the Rings, the characterization of Mitford, and the storytelling of Rowling. I want to capture the love in Austen, and the imagination of Dahl. I was uplifted as a child by the old skin horse in the nursery and I cheered on the hero’s of Paulson’s novels as they overcame struggles in my teen years. I marvel at the quests of Eragon and the existence of Pern and I embrace the friendships of Terabithia and the morality of Narnia. I am amazed by the attention to detail of Morton’s intricately woven flashbacks, and I am transported by Smith’s 1930s Brooklyn.

While I am not so bold as to think I can achieve all these literary accomplishments in any one piece of fiction or even through a lifetime of writing, they are my goalposts nonetheless. My taste in reading has fluctuated widely over the course of my life, but there are two themes that consistently capture my appreciation: friendship and love. If you throw in a quest of some form (albeit figurative or literal), all the better. These themes bring me full circle back to my own experiences. While it took me decades to formally recognize it about myself, I am incredibly tribal. I grew up in a loving family and sought to find other “tribes” to which I could belong throughout my life. My high school friends, my college roommates, my grad school buddies, and my professional colleagues have provided me untold hours of laughter, support, and camaraderie.

I have found my best tribe in my own home with my husband and son and the life we have created together. It is their love that has given me the confidence, support, and opportunity to return to my childhood dream of writing. I look forward to sharing the years of friendship and love I have been blessed with throughout my life through my writing to create a new tribe of readers.