About

I was born in Seattle, Washington, and I will always feel a deep connection to the Pacific Northwest. With its majestic mountains and beautiful coastline, it stirs the soul with both its peace and its wonderment.

I moved to the Midwest when I was a young child and grew up just south of Cleveland, Ohio. I will always be a hopeful Cleveland Browns fan. Although most of my formative years were spent in Ohio, my Norwegian mother traveled with me and my two younger sisters across the ocean to the land of the midnight sun almost every summer. It was there, in the beautiful rural home of my grandparents, where I ran free in the woods, swam in a frigid fjord, and planted cabbage on a farm, that I learned about both the similarities and contrasts between people of different lifestyles and cultures. I believe there is a deep common bond that people share, and this philosophy appears in much of my writing. It is our hidden connection to others that has the power to cross barriers and unite us, despite our varied languages and even conflicting beliefs. It is like a light that we merely need to turn on to illuminate all the possibilities we have as people.

My father also had a great influence on my life. His love of nature, and the time we spent in our cabin in Canada, made me a lifelong lover of the outdoors. But it was his fondness of the written word that may have had the greatest impact of all. Our home always had books, and he encouraged my developing fascination with literature and my own passion for writing.

My love of reading morphed into my pursuit of knowledge. Education has always figured prominently in my life. I love being a student and a learner, and I have received degrees from Bowling Green State University, Xavier University, and Northern Kentucky University. My passion for education also transcended into my desire to share the beauty of what others have written. I have taught English courses to students in middle school, high school, and community college.

I continue to marvel at the connections I find between what may have been written a hundred years ago and the world today. This fascination has inspired me to finally pursue a dream I have held close to my heart since I was a child. The dream to write my own novels. To write stories that would show how the relationships we form in life, even those we never thought we would, can bring us together. In the Night of Day is my first novel, but I plan to write more. There is so much to be said about the power of reaching out and connecting.

While I cherish watching and learning about the people around me, and the complex characters that live within my imagination, I am so fortunate to have my own real-life relationships to celebrate. Family means the world to me, and I am the proud mother of three grown children who continue to amaze me every day. Although I currently live in Ohio with my husband and two spoiled dogs, the sound of the waves rolling onto the Oregon coast, and the wind through the trees on Mt. Hood, still call my name. Maybe one day I will live in that part of the world where my own story began.