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Like the characters from most of my stories, I grew up in an ordinary working-class family, with parents who taught me to value the simple things in life. I was an only child until age fifteen. Though not rich, my childhood was filled with books, music, and pets, piano lessons and Girl Scouts, fishing trips and my first horse, a retired Standardbred pacer. My favorite times were the yearly weeklong vacations at Putnam Pond State Campground, which is now only a fifteen-minute drive from my house. Those trips were a treat that I looked forward to all year. I try to show that small-town lifestyle in my books, "Matthias: The Ghost of Salvation Point," "Stormwind of the North Country," "The Forests I Called Home," and "Secrets of the North Country," which is the sequel to "Stormwind."
I am single, with a shaggy little dog named Summer, two cats, Honey and Rio, an aquarium of goldfish, two ferrets named Buddy and Rascal, and my 35-year-old horse, Solomon. I’ve had him for over over fourteen years now, a spirited Arabian/Quarter Horse cross. Though now retired from his years as a trail horse, he likes to prove that he still has a mind of his own!
Besides writing, my hobbies are reading, drawing and crafts, designing houses, gardening, fishing, music, and photography. During the summer I like paddling my canoe on local creeks and lakes, learning to sail my small sailboat, and camping and hiking with my dog. I love both the mountains and the ocean, and enjoy vacationing in Cape Cod, MA, the east coast of Florida, and Monhegan Island, ME.
Author Influences, and How I Came to Write "Stormwind of the North Country":
I began writing my first book, “Stormwind of the North Country,” as a horse-crazy nine-year-old. It was just a short story about a girl who rescued a beautiful horse from its abusive owner. At the time, I had no idea that that simple story would stick with me through my high school and college years, and beyond, as the story evolved and added new characters and situations.
Although all the people and events are fictional, writing “Stormwind” was a chance to revisit some favorite places of my childhood. I spent several of my pre-teen years living in a log cabin in the woods, along a winding mountain road frequented by logging trucks, like the road in the story. Kat's farmhouse, and the nearby cabin with the wild roses, were based on real places I'd admired when I went exploring for miles up that road on my first horse. The fictional town of "Sprucewood" is based on the small towns where I grew up. And Kat and Randy's lean-to at the pond is just like the hundreds you find today, built all along the Adirondack hiking trails.
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