Make voyages. Attempt them. There is nothing else.

Tennessee Williams

A life in books starts early…
    If my mother could have found a way, she'd have given birth to my sister and me in a library. One of my earliest memories involves slowly printing my name on an apricot-colored index card at my neighborhood library on the north side of Chicago. That day, I left with my very own library card in hand. In my family, a library card has always symbolized endless possibilities and carries an element of magic and excitement. 

     I also have fond memories of meeting my librarian mother at the rental library in Marshall Field's on State Street. Those department store rental libraries are a thing a past now, but in their day, avid readers like my mother added their names to long waiting lists for the newest bestselling mysteries, contemporary novels, or, in my mother's case, literary and political memoir and biography. 

     I suppose it's not surprising that I named my daughter Laura, after Laura Ingalls Wilder, my favorite childhood author. How many times did I read those "Little House" books? At some point I stopped counting, but as an adult I read the whole series to Laura and her brother Adam.

     During the first three years of my writing career I worked as assistant librarian at the public library in Rockland, Maine, and every week I assembled a selection of novels for shut-ins and nursing home residents. A few years later, I held a part-time job running the used book department of a bookstore in Annapolis, Maryland.

     Looking back, it seems inevitable that I'd eventually become passionate about writing novels of my own. Although I'm not published in fiction yet, I keep plugging away.

The stories I tell…
    I write what is generally known as mainstream women's fiction-contemporary family drama/love stories that often feature mature characters and usually a few kids, too. The characters face big challenges, and sometimes cope with life and death issues, but they also enjoy some humor and many light moments. A friend says my books offer hope and healing, along with plenty of second chances.
  
     In Greta's Grace, professional speaker, Lindsey Foster, must face her adult daughter's health crisis, and ultimately, she's forced to choose between what she believes will make Greta happy or go where her own heart leads her. I set Greta's Grace in a fictional resort town in Door County, Wisconsin, which gave me a chance to use the beauty of the rural landscape and the Lake Michigan shore–and feature a Swedish café-bakery, too.

In 2006, Greta's Grace was named a finalist in RWA's Golden Heart Contest in the "Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements" category. It also has been named a finalist in several other RWA chapter contests.

  

     In Island Healing, Luke is determined to sail around the world on his classic sailboat, Midnight, and Geneva hopes to find new meaning in her life by helping her brother's family through a troubled time. Add three teenagers to the story and life gets complicated. For this book, I drew on my experiences living aboard an older wooden ketch.

In February 2007, Island Healing book took first place in the Mainstream category of the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest, sponsored by Southern Louisiana Romance Writers, and in 2005, it won the Lowcountry RWA chapter's Jasmine contest, also in the Mainstream category. It's been a finalist in several other RWA chapter contests. Island Healing is the first of a three-book series set on a fictional island off the Georgia coast–one of my favorite places in the country.

     Amber Light tells the story of Sarah's journey to wholeness after a single act of violence changes her life in every way. Two men, important to Sarah for different reasons, along with two amusing little girls, mix things up along the way, but they help her heal and grow into a mature woman.  Amber Light takes place on the South Carolina coast, another part of the country I'm drawn to again and again.