though.  I loved pictures and words, color and words, music and words. 

I grew up and tried different things like farming and being a nanny and be- 

ing a teacher and being a world traveler, and playing the fiddle, and working 

in a huge office building making what seemed like gobs of money, and I fi- 

nally found that the thing that made my heart sing was writing children’s 

books.  The pairing of words and pictures.  Blending them both so that one 

was not complete without the other. 

So, here I am, an author of children’s books.  And very happy, too.

And what about the future? 

I would like to illustrate some of my books.  I love teaching and performing 

my stories, and know I will jump on this magic carpet of a career and keep 

teaching and performing in new lands. 

I also know that I will continue writing, sometimes because I very much 

want to publish a book or a poem, because I want to send something won- 

derful out to the world.  More and more I write for the pure pleasure of get- 

ting lost in writing, for looking up at the clock and realizing that four hours 

have passed in one breath, that I haven’t started dinner yet, that it is now 

dark outside.   

I look to the future and know that I will be writing for the delight of diving 

back into that great creative sea, swimming around, and bringing combina- 

tions of color and words, music and words, pictures and words to the surface 

to share.  With you.