: About Me

I have been telling stories (with dramatic voices and lots of hand waving) since I was three. Becoming a writer wasn't so much a career choice as a necessity since whatever I did, turned into a story. I had been teacher's pet for every English teacher I ever knew. What I needed was a romantic sounding ethnic pen name because my cultural make-up was as exciting as Wonder bread. So I married an English teacher for the bliss of always being teacher's pet, and he provided the classy surname.

My writing credits are as eclectic as my reading tastes. I've published children's stories, dog stories, travel stories, inspirational stories, parenting stories, and humor pieces. I've done photo-journalism, greeting card writing, ghost-writing, assistant editing, self-published handbooks - you got the money, honey, I've got the words.

I love research so I don't mind writing about any subject. The three topics I love communicating in favor of are the Bible, home education, and fantasy literature. (History, child psychology, and mass media aren't bad topics, either.)

One of my greatest joys is that my husband and I have bred and raised writers. My daughter's future is aimed at sequential art publications (they used to call them comic books but it's gone WAY past that now). My teenage son produces rhythm and sci-fi/action/horror stories wherever he goes.

I collect quotes about writing. Here's a few:

"Until you're fifty, writing is hard work. Then it becomes just another bad habit." - Somerset Maugham

"You know you're a writer when every blooming flower becomes a "why" and every planted seed becomes a "what if." - Rose Adkins

"Writing is like love-making. You have to practice to be good at it. Like the best love-making, it has to be done in private and with great consideration for your partner in the enterprise, who, in this case, is the reader." - Morris L. West

"Writing is easy - all you have to do is sit at a typewriter until tiny drops of blood appear on your forehead." - Red Smith

My passion is ...

Jesus Christ, as revealed through the Bible

I know too much about ...

selecting ripe fruit

My parents always told me ...

cat's fur makes kitten britches

My childhood ambition ...

to see my books on a shelf in the public library

My favorite memory ...

yesterday . . . all of them

Why I write ...

wielding words is the only real magic

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Gospel of Matthew, Dr. Who, Take Five (and my son's drumming)

My first job ...

Kelly Services temp

My best moment ...

Lecturing every week for Bible Study Fellowship

My inspiration ...

Holy Spirit, husband, children, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle

Entertainment > Movie Remakes & Adaptations Book and movie comparisons: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

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While many children’s books do not have the sufficient stride to leap to film, Director Andrew Adamson’s version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is an excellent translation from C.S. Lewis’ original story to cinema. This may be due to co-producer Douglas Gresham being C.S. Lewis’ stepson and having a vested interest in protecting the spirit and intent of the story. Previous made for television video versions of the story have had their charms, the best being the 1998 version by the BBC using live action and animatronics, but it is not until the...

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