I was 15 years old when I penned my first short story. I won my first literary award when I was 16. It was a writing competition for high school and college students. I wrote a piece called "The Elders". I did not think that it was special, but my teacher thought it was wonderful and entered it in the contest. She even paid the entry fee. I could not believe it when I won!

The second book in this trilogy. I hope to have it released in late summer or early fall of 2017.

I have an incredibly talented artist who does my covers.

I was a voracious reader as a child, and got lost in every book I read. Each book was a cherished adventure so I cannot pinpoint one particular book.

They mean everything to me. Their joy is the reason that I write.

I usually have the whole book in my head before I type the first word. I know what I want to say, and what I want to accomplish with each book. I create chapters as placeholders and assign an element of the book to each chapter. Then I write whichever chapter that inspires me that day. I never force content.

When my son was in elementary school I decided to write a chapter book series that teaches kids that everyone is unique in their own way, and that acceptance and tolerance is better than bullying someone. I tried to go the traditional route, and could not even get a literary agent to read my book(s). I later found out that new writers have less than a one-percent chance of getting a book deal. Think about that for a moment; the odds are so high that it can't even calculate up to a single percent. I was banging my head against a literary wall that I was never going to be able to scale.

When I decided to write this middle-grade trilogy, I made the decision to walk away from that wall that had "Keep Out" scrawled across it. It is a shame the traditional industry is so closed off. There are a lot of great writers out there, with amazing stories to tell. It is an exciting time to be a writer.