I grew up in a lovely small town situated on the Northeast corner of Ohio, Ashtabula. Ashtabula sits next to the Great Lake Erie. Coming from a small town meant smaller classrooms and more attention from teachers. Early on, teachers pointed out my writing ability. My twin brother told me I started to write stories and poetry from the time I learned the alphabet and I first used a pencil.
The biggest influence on my writing was Robert Louis Stevenson's 'A Child's Garden of Verses.'

I've written my entire life. I remember one time when I was in 6th grade that my teacher was so impressed with my little book, that she had me read it to the entire class.

My latest book is a book of poetry. I often say that my heart belongs to writing, but my soul belongs to poetry. 'Stepping Stones to Love Honor and Respect' is a book of 60 poems, mostly prose, comprising a variety of topics. These poems are a collection I started writing about 5 years ago. They are poems to warm your heart and soul.

I like the feeling of independence in choosing every aspect of publishing my book; from the cover and title to the contents. Today, whether one publishes from a publisher or chooses the Indie route, it's a difficult climb but the difference is the freedom to do it your way.

Smashwords makes publishing easy. The Smashwords guidelines help to get your book in proper format. Once accepted Smashwords takes care of everything else. It's much simpler than other templates and certainly quicker, plus it's a friendly community and easy for me to check the current status of my books.

Once I start a story, the story takes over. I love living in the world I've created and watching the characters and the story develop. The best part? Writing something will make a reader get lost in my creation and finish a book feeling it was his/her's newest best friend.

Readers of my work are precious to me because they've taken the time to read what I've written. I enjoy introducing readers to my new world and waiting for their reactions.

I'm currently finishing the second in the 'Always' saga. 'The Lone Hero' where Einarr accepts his first mortal mission. He has been chosen to go to the Dragons' homeworld to help end their war. I have taken a new twist on dragons that I hope readers will enjoy.

I live to create, so when I'm not writing stories or poetry I'm involved in some other creative endeavor such as crocheting, knitting, cross-stitch, etc or I spend my time relaxing with a good book.

I'll be working on a project when an idea for a story or poem will come to me. I'll type out what I have. My next step is to build a circle outline and add offshoots around it as the plot develops. Often, I'll see a section of the book or the ending long before I figure out how to start the story. I'll build the story more in depth as I come up with the how or why's.

I've always loved books. I most remember Robert Louis Stevenson's 'A Child's Garden of Verses' that my mother bought for me. I don't remember exactly how old I was - 7 or 8-years-old, but I fell in love with that book and read it often. I decided then that I wanted to be a writer and a poet. My favorite poem from that book was 'The Swing.'