Why I Started Writing:

I can never remember not writing. As a little girl, I wrote songs, poems, and little stories. I received my first diary when I started junior high school, and I’ve kept a journal ever since. During high school and college, essays were never a problem because I thought I expressed myself best through writing. Upon college graduation, I began teaching. My first assignment was at a Christian elementary/junior high school owned and operated by a woman who loved children and used to be a gospel singer. Every school event was an extravaganza. I wrote several full-length musicals, many songs for chapel services, and even jingles that turned grammar lessons into songs and poems that my students could remember easily. Biola University had taught me more than the academics I needed for my degree. I learned to deeply study the Bible, so many of my evenings were spent taking deep dives into passages of Scripture. One passage that captivated me was Proverbs 31 about the virtuous woman. I dug in, looking up nearly every word in Hebrew, and rewriting the meaning of each verse. Upon sharing my findings with my friends from church, one of them told me, “This would make a great book!” Soon after, I heard of a Christian writers’ conference that would be held on the Biola campus. I attended and discovered that I was not only a writer, I could be an author! I haven’t stopped writing and publishing since.

Authors Who Have Influenced Me:

Authors Who Have Influenced Me: Dr. Seuss is honestly my biggest influence because I fell in love with the intrigue and fun of words and language. Nathaniel Hawthorne made the language sound beautiful, and Mark Twain told stories so memorably. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun taught me that the counterpoint of lines in a play were like an intricate dance leading the audience to challenge their own inner conflicts and prejudices. Maya Angelou made the language sound gritty and realistic, yet her words still had class, and Frederick Douglass’ memoir and speeches showed me words could communicate hard truths. I strive to write intriguing, fun, beautiful, memorable, gritty, realistic, classy words that cause my readers to laugh freely, think deeply, and consider their responsibility to hard truths.

Books I Have Written:

• A Woman God Can Bless, Harambee Press, August 2020
• 366 Glimpses of God: Getting to Know the God Who Knows You, HSBN Publishing, December 2016
• Why I Get into Trouble, Alten Ink, December 2014
• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children, Judson Press, Fall 2013
• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame, New Hope Publishers, March 2011
• Habit to Heart, G8 Press, 2011
• Raising Boys to be like Jesus, Judson Press, 2009 (As of August 2009, #7 on Top 10 Judson Press Best Sellers YTD, winner of Mom’s Choice Award – February 2010)
• The Stupid Term Paper, G8 Press, 2009
• Living a Milk & Honey Life: Letting Go of what’s Holding you Back, Beacon Hill Publishers, 2006
• What? Teenagers in the Bible?, PleasantWord (Winepress) Publishers, 2001, Redemption Press 2014
• Martin Luther King: A Pastor with a Daring Dream, Scandinavia Publishing House, 1995
• Me? Virtuous? Ocean Rose Publishing, 1992

What I'm Working On Now:

• Didn’t See That Coming: When How They’re Living’s Not How You Raised Them, Elk Lake Publishing, Winter 2021
• Miss Gray Would Never Know, a children’s diversity book
• Jesus Looks Like Love, a children’s diversity book
• A Woman God Can Hear: Getting God’s Attention Whenever You Need Him
• I Really Need to Know Series – Children’s picture books explaining theological ideas (the sin nature [Why I Get Into Trouble], death [Mommy Cried This Morning], the Trinity [Funny Math], communion [Special Church Snack], greed [I Want What I Want When I Want It Right Now], baptism, and forgiveness,)
• A Woman Doesn’t Quit – The Bible’s women show today’s women how to hang in there