Why I Started Writing:

I can trace my desire to be a writer to the time I became a reader. I made up stories about my dolls and my friends, and wrote them in a 25-cent notebook. My first influence was Betsy Ray, the intrepid heroine of Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books. Betsy wanted to be a writer and scribbled stories in her tree fort. If she could do it, I could do it. 

My second major influence came in sixth grade, when one of my friends handed me a copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. It was the first time in my young life anyone had said, “You gotta read this!” And I did, and I was mesmerized. I remember thinking, “Words can do THIS?” It was the Harry Potter of my generation. 

I wrote fiction, badly, through most of my teen and young adult years. I gave my life to Jesus as a young adult. My third epiphany came when I stumbled across a copy of Brock and Bodie Thoene’s Zion Chronicles. For some writers Janette Oke propelled them into Christian fiction, but for me it was the Thoenes. I realized, again, what words can do, this time for the Kingdom.  

Books I Have Written:

I spent most of my adult life in journalism, covering thirteen small Hampshire towns for three different papers over a period of thirty years. I had always written fiction on the side, and finally (in God’s timing) published my first novel in 2019. I’ve done three Western novels and two related novellas with another publisher. The series is called “Western Dreams.”  

I wanted to work with my daughter, a freelance photographer, and we signed with Arcadia Publishing for a nonfiction local history book, ‘Past and Present: Exeter, New Hampshire,” published in 2020. Though nonfiction was simply a way to pay the bills for many years, I fell in love with telling TRUE stories with our second Arcadia book, “New Hampshire War Monuments: The Stories Behind the Stones,” published in 2022. Our third Arcadia book, ‘Growing Up in Concord, New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s,” will debut in 2023. 

I hope to publish contemporary romances and women’s fiction with Elk Lake, beginning with “A Hilltop Christmas,” out in 2023. I’m open to other genres such as mystery and suspense. We’ll see! 

What I'm Working On Now:

This winter I’ll be: 

1. Editing and formatting A Hilltop Christmas 

1. Preparing the second Hilltop book, A Hilltop Reunion, for submitting to Elk Lake 

1. Researching my next topic for Arcadia 

1. Researching the Irish immigrant experience in steerage for a possible novel 

1. Researching the Battle of Bunker Hill for a possible novel.