The memories are vivid. December weather in Southern California rarely fell below freezing temperatures, but there was still a crisp nip in the air as we piled into my dad’s car to make our yearly pilgrimage to the “Christmas House.” The tradition began when I was around eleven or twelve, around the time my dad...Read More

My daughter asked for a fairy house for Christmas. She was very specific that it should be two stories and be made from a tree like a real fairy might have. Because I’ve always loved a challenge and also love arts and crafts projects, I decided to make one for her myself. Once I decided...Read More

Writing can be an intense and tiring job. It requires a lot of mental endurance and also a LOT of sitting. When I need a mental break from the rigor of writing, I love to dabble in arts and crafts. Craft projects are a great stress-reliever for me, and are also great activities to do...Read More

If you’ve read A Tale Magnolious, you know that chocolate is hard to come by in the downtrodden town of Fortune’s Bluff. Chocolate chip cookies weren’t even invented until the late 1930s (A world without chocolate-chip cookies…how could it ever have existed?). Chocolate morsels weren’t yet invented, either. So, in honor of Nitty, Magnolious, and...Read More

So…it’s confession time. My homemade macarons do NOT look like the ones on the cover of my book, Macarons at Midnight. My homemade macarons are not perfectly round, and sometimes not perfectly fluffy. In fact, when I made these Pumpkin Spice N’ Everything Nice macarons, they weren’t perfect, or even really that pretty. However, they...Read More

The ideas for my stories come from many different sources. I’m inspired by people I meet, places I visit, adventures I’ve had, and even by my own dreams. My most recent middle-grade novel, A Tale Magnolious, was inspired by a dream about a real elephant named Mary. This is her story. Mary the Elephant Mary...Read More