Why I Started Writing:

I started writing when I was seven years old, just about when I learned to read. I recall making a little picture book about a pony getting a saddle. As a teenager, I wrote poetry, and I had a dream of writing a book for children. When I got to college I majored in English because I loved to read.  

I earned a living writing for newspapers, and this took me in a nonfiction direction. Then I became an engineer and eventually a homeschooler. My fiction writing? I wrote a middle-grade novel when I was thirty years old, but I could tell—it wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t ready. I shelved my dream and worked on other stuff for many years. Finally, I pulled the dream out again about fifteen years ago and have been working to learn the craft. I’ve found two writers’ organizations to be so, so helpful: American Christian Fiction Writers and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. 

Authors Who Have Influenced Me:

Kate DiCamillo is definitely an author who influenced me—I love her sense of wonder. I also love Jane Yolen and Else Holmelund Minarik. 

Books I Have Written:

Besides the upcoming The Long Shadow, my published books consist of the computer programming curriculums I wrote for homeschoolers: Computer Science Pure and Simple, and Logo Adventures.   

What I'm Working On Now:

I’m working on a middle grade fiction manuscript and on several STEM picture books.