biography

I'm not one of those children's authors who will tell you
she "grew up writing". Looking back, I didn't even realize
that I loved it. I grew up with my parents and younger
sister in a small East Texas town. We lived out in the
country and I either was romping in the woods or had my
nose buried in a book. My favorites? Well, the Little
House on the Prairie series, Charlotte's Web and
ANYTHING by Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume.

In fact, when I grew up and had kids of my own, the main
thing my mother had saved from my childhood to pass
down to them were tons of books. (Reading was really
important to my parents.)

In school, English was always my favorite subject. I liked it SO much that I studied it in
college. After high school, I went to the University of Texas - Austin (HOOK 'EM
HORNS!) and received a degree in English Literature. Now, what some of you might
find interesting is that I had a double minor - Greek Literature and MONKEYS!
Actually, they call it primatology (the study of primates). I was fascinated by primates
and took as many physical anthropology classes as I could. I sat in a room for hours
each week, watching monkeys and studying them.

My knowledge of monkeys would come in useful, but I didn't even use my English
degree when I graduated. I spent seven years working in finance (and I am terrible at
math ... go figure!). Believe me, when working in a major corporation, what I learned
about monkey behavior came in handy. During that time, I married my wonderful
husband, Joey. At the end of seven years, I got a new and more challenging job as a
MOM! (Again, primatology came in pretty handy-dandy.)

It was the best job ever but the pay stunk, so I started teaching preschool. Now I was
having fun! Teaching is still what I do today. I teach three year olds and Spanish for
the fours and Pre-K fives. I began writing for kids in 2003. Since then, I have written
several magazine articles for children and have had two picture books published (but
have written over thirty picture book manuscripts, so look for more in the future!). So, I
suppose all that time I spent reading paid off!

Now, I live in north Houston, TX with my husband, two daughters, one big dog, two little
kittens and two fish. Click here for weird facts about me and the answers to some
frequently asked questions