​The Girl Became a Reader, Then a Writer: A Little About Me
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​I'm an American girl who grew up overseas, riding elephants in Thailand, dancing around the Maypole in Sweden, drinking tea in the United Kingdom, and touring castles across Europe. In these foreign (to me) and exotic locales, books were both my anchor and my escape. They connected me to my native land (and English-speakers in general), while introducing me to worlds even more awesome than the ones I lived in.

I credit my godmother Katheran Russell (long gone now), for instilling in me a love of reading during my childhood. Living abroad, we didn't have access to books written in English. Every year for birthdays and Christmas, Aunt Katheran would send me books, which I devoured on the spot. I remember reading Little Women, Robinson Crusoe and the whimsical work of Robert Louis Stevenson. Aunt Katheran was a renaissance woman. In the 1950s she earned a master's degree in drama at Northwestern University, and wrote scripts that were produced by small local theaters. Later she lived the life of an Army wife, but always with the soul of an artist. She wouldn't live long enough to see that she jump-started my career as a writer, but I am forever in her debt.

I started my writing career early, copying definitions from the dictionary, so proud of my accomplishments!  My first book was called Julie T. and Company, written and laminated in the fourth grade. I still have a copy. In high school and college, I wrote a lot of bad poetry, full on angst. In 1997 I published my first book, a biography of Louisa May Alcott, and never looked back.

Fast forward through 24 years and 12 books to present-day Minneapolis where I continue to write and publish and live with my husband and best friend, and our rescue pup Jessica Fletcher.