I’ve known I was a writer from the time I was a child. I started writing books after I learned to print but before I could read, relying on my (very patient) mom to help me spell the words. As I got older, I wrote more stories and composed plays that my siblings and friends and I performed. Writing seemed like a superpower to me, the secret key to a magical world that I wanted to be part of.

My goal was to get my first book published before I was 10. That didn’t happen, but my awesome and astute sixth-grade teacher, Miss Johnson, read some of my short stories out loud to the class and I gained a reputation among my classmates as a writer. This boosted my self-confidence and fueled my desire and determination to be a writer when I grew up ~  a lasting gift for which I’m grateful. 

I started submitting articles and stories to magazines and publishers as a teenager. At first, I got only standard rejection slips, then rejection slips with encouraging notes. I didn’t stop writing but I did stop trying to get published for a period of about 10 years while I got married, had children, and went to college. In my mid-thirties, I decided to get serious once more about my dream of making my living as a writer.

I began again, writing freelance articles which were published in regional and national magazines as well as a local Twin Cities newspaper. I joined a Twin Cities sketch comedy group and started writing comedy skits. I was hired as a marketing copywriter, then promoted to senior copywriter, at a metaphysical book publisher. I worked at the publishing house for 13 years and published two books with them under a pen name. My third book was published by Tor/Macmillan in 2012. I also published a digital book through Amazon Kindle, just to see how it worked and whether I liked the publishing model. (I do, but it’s not without drawbacks.) And I’ve ghostwritten three books.

I’ve worked in marketing at a nonprofit organization and as an editor for a magazine. I’ve written scores of book proposals and cover letters, read hundreds of manuscripts.  

In 2015, I started my own literary agency, while also promoting my books via my website, blog, social media, radio and podcast interviews, TV appearances and events. I loved this work, but a change in personal circumstances and a changing world motivated me to move in a new direction starting in January of 2022. 

Which brings us here. 

After all these years, I still believe — more than ever! — that the world of words and ideas is a magical and potent place, filled with creative possibility.

I am grateful to be able to make my living doing what I love most: transforming the world with words.

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