Growing up on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I was encouraged to engage in creative pursuits. My mom and siblings were artists—drawing and painting. Not talented in this way, I fell in love with the piano and writing stories.

Some of my relatives on my dad’s side also enjoyed writing. I was encouraged to follow what excited me.

While I didn’t follow my interests in music or writing for my college degree, I continued to play piano and write. I thought education would be something I could make a living at, the idea of teaching others did appeal to me, and I became a teacher in the public schools. I even got a master's degree in education.

It wasn’t until my mid to late twenties that I learned I was learning disabled and also diagnosed with auditory processing disorder. At this point, I began to understand why I struggled to learn in my first three or four years in elementary school.

I continued to write, often not doing so for years at a stretch. I always came back to my writing.

In 1999, I found other writers on the internet and writing became a focus in my life. Wanting to learn all that was available, I took classes and read everything I could find on writing fiction.

During this time, I completed the UCLA Certificate Program with a focus on long and short fiction.

While I was also drawn to teaching, I discovered I loved sharing knowledge with other writers and seeing them grow in their writing. I’ve been teaching online for over fifteen years.

A few years later, I began offering coaching/mentoring services to fiction writers which I’ve been doing for over a decade.

I live in Virginia with my seven-year-old special needs dog, Franklin.