I have been creating since I was able to hold a pencil but I had no formal training until I entered high school and was fortunate to have an art teacher who recognized my talent and my inability to learn by conventional methods. Being dyslexic, I tend to think about things in a different way and he allowed me to learn in my own way and at my own pace.  My dyslexica has never been a disability, rather a very useful tool especially in creating sculpture. It does however present a problem when working on a two dimensional surface and it took me a while to warm up to working with paint and canvas. When computer art came along, I took to it very easily. I now use a computer and a digital draw pad to create all of my illustrations for my books. I started using a program designed for artists called Painter and wrote my first books using that program exclusively. Now I find that the illustrator program created by Adobe works perfectly for my style so I use Adobe Illustrator for all of my book graphics. I then build the book using Adobe inDesign. I write, illustrate, design and produce my books. My husband Chris and I have produced my last two books and now have created Kindle Fire books using my first 3 books. Since both of us are skilled in the computer arts, we find self publishing works best for us.  I have lived in the Caribbean for over 20 years and I write my stories about the creatures that live on these islands. I try to illustrate my books to reflect the character of the island where the story takes place and use creatures that really live there. I  create animal characters that behave the way they really do in nature and then write a fanciful story based on that behavior.