Welcome to my website!
I'm an author of many short stories and essays--some of them published, but most of them not.
Although I've been writing stories and poems and essays since I was in grade school, my dream of becoming an author of published works didn't begin to take shape until I was in my thirties. Before that, I was busy traveling, getting married, starting a family, and becoming a homeowner.
I bought an old typewriter in 1987, and my writing adventure began. I banged out my first short story, The Tree, shortly after, and fell in love with my imagination.
In 1998, my memoir, Tender Treasures, was awarded first place in the Texas-Wide Writers' Contest, Reminiscence category. I won awards for my short stories, Love Songs and Green Eyes, the following two years.
This year (2026) my novel, Came a Gentle Whisper (published 2025), won a Finalist Award from the National Indie Excellence Awards 20th annual competition.
I completed a Bachelor of History degree, graduating summa cum laude from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas in 2007. My studies in history developed my interest in research, and I became enamored with finding details of the past buried in obscure original resources such as old diaries (I'm a collector), newspapers, and oral histories.
Later, I became obsessed with preserving the stories of my grandparents' and parents' lives--their memories and adventures that were sure to be lost if not written down. I finished my first full-length memoir, Songs From the Roaring Storm, in 2019 and published it for family members, giving each of my children, siblings, nieces and nephews a copy.
In 2024, I joined a wonderful writing critique group, Write on Waxahachie. The group published its first anthology, Mosaic, in 2025, and I was lucky to have two of my short stories and three of my poems accepted for inclusion in that book.
The anthology is available for sale on Amazon.
My debut novel, Came a Gentle Whisper, a Bennett's Ridge Story, is a National Indie Excellence Award Finalist.
It can be found by clicking the "Buy Now" button below.
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