Contrary to other authors I read about, I didn't always want to be a writer. Granted, my brother and sisters called me Bookworm and my parents sometimes insisted I stop reading and go outside for fresh air, but writing never occurred to me, not even after my college English professor suggested I major or minor in English. (I might have been more convinced if he'd given me better grades—of course he told me he'd give me better grades if I'd revise my work before turning it in. I eventually took his comments to heart and now conduct workshops on revision. You can find an article I wrote for Sprouts, the New Jersey SCBWI on the subject here.) Here is the link

After listening to his advice, I graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in – Food Science. After working in Quality Control and Product Development at a frozen food bakery (One of my tasks was to make cheesecake in a test kitchen every day for six months) for two years, I became Assistant Editor at Food Engineering, a food industry trade journal. I wrote about such exciting topics as reducing sodium in food products and government regulation of the food industry.

It didn't take long to decide I'd rather do something more interesting (not that food isn't interesting.) I started a gourmet take-out shop (which factors into the manuscript I'm writing now.) I ran The Main Course until selling it shortly before our first child was born.

After my husband and I had three children, I decided to write for children. Writing fiction is totally different from nonfiction, and there was a huge learning curve. But success in writing is as much about patience and determination as it is about talent (I like to think I have equal amounts of each—and fortunately my husband has plenty of patience) and so, after several years, I've had some success.

My first published book was a historical fiction chapter book written for Homecourt Publishing. You won't find When the Dust Settled in the bookstore. It's sold in packs of twenty-five to schools. I've also written annotations for Best Books for Children and articles for magazines. I'm Executive Editor of Sprouts, the magazine of the New Jersey Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

I've written both contemporary tween and historical middle grade manuscripts, and am looking for an agent and editor who love my writing. I conduct writing workshops for both adults and children, and you can find more information about that here.