Born in Kentucky and raised in Texas, I have spent the majority of my life ping-ponging between these two states, with 19 adult years in Kentucky and my most recent years back in Texas. I can also claim a brief stopover in Annapolis, Maryland and an 18-month stint in Fairfax, Virginia. I can honestly say I have loved every place I've lived.
One of my favorite hobbies is traveling - I especially love Germany and Austria, but I also have a soft spot for the mountains of Colorado, the big sky country of Montana, and the natural beauty of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. The next place I'd like to go? Alaska. I'd like to take my husband of 23 years and all four of my children with me.
As far as education goes, I earned an English degree at The University of Texas at Austin, and went on to graduate school in Education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. I've also completed graduate level courses in Education at Murray State University and Northern Kentucky University.
Although I currently teach Reading to a charming group of middle-schoolers, for fifteen years I enjoyed life as a stay-at-home mom; before that, I taught middle school and high school English, gathering experience at every grade level, from sixth to twelfth. And always, I wrote.
I believe I started writing around the age of seven, when I penned a letter to then-Governor Wendell Ford of Kentucky, addressing the letter "Dear Ford." Once I saw my letter published, for all the school to see, I began collecting notepads and notebooks and diaries, filling them with poems and thoughts and stories. But never was I brave enough to let anyone see them.
