1.) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. How did you get started as a children's book author and what events lead up to it?
I grew up on the East Coast, the youngest of five children. I was a quiet, sensitive child, and I would completely lose
myself in the stories I read. I loved how books transported me into the thoughts and feelings of the characters and the challenges they had to overcome.
Before becoming a children’s author, I was an advertising/marketing copywriter. I did this for about 15 years—even though I didn’t feel passionate about my craft. Don’t get me wrong. I knew I loved to write. I just didn’t love
what I was writing.
My professional life shifted about 13 years ago when my daughter, a second grader at the time, became the target of some bullying friends. It was one of those experiences that had a profound effect on both of us.
In my search for age-appropriate books to address the very real and rampant problem of social cruelty among peers, I came up empty-handed. Frustrated with this resource gap, I wrote
my first book, My Secret Bully, to help empower children to make healthier friendship choices. The outpour of positive reviews and heartfelt responses from young readers, parents, educators, and bullying prevention experts and organizations gave me the impetus to continue writing more books to help kids connect with their peers in helpful, rather than hurtful, ways.
