Why do I write? I write because I have to. Someone said, "I write so I know what I think," and for me, that sums it up. Events don't seem real until I write about them. My writing has been influenced by my experiences, classes I've taken, and most of all, by the books I've read. When I wrote Blind Faith, a novel about the Roman Catholic clergy abuse crisis, I thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe writing Uncle Tom's Cabin, and how fiction is one way to take people inside a reality they have yet to grasp and come to grips with.  

Three-time winner in the Iowa Press Women Communication Contest, including First Place Special Articles, Sports and Leisure; Second Place, Magazine, Four Color; and Honorable Mention in Special Articles.