More About
Here’s a bit more about me and how I started writing for kids. (Now in first person!)
Ready…
“Make a book,” Ms. Holland told our third grade class. So I hired a photographer (my mom) and toured my Washington, D.C., neighborhood: the drug store (where I’d “beg for gum,”), the shoe shop (where we’d go “practically once a month”), and on a field trip with my Brownie troop (“This year I sold 466 Girl Scout Cookies.”). But the most memorable stop was at the police station, where I got fingerprinted and thrown in the slammer (“It’s fun to visit, but I never want to go back.”). That day I learned that writers will stop at nothing to tell a good story. Whether it was through my (hyperlocal) newspaper made on Print Shop in the attic or the live news broadcast to my dad’s camcorder in the living room, I found a way to tell my stories.
Set…
In high school, I hooked up two VCRs and an audio cassette player and began to tell stories through video. I started writing screenplays in college and directed one of them, Orbiting Pluto, which was inspired by my college thesis on the screwball comedy films of the 1930s and 40s. My day jobs included work on TV shows including The Rosie O’Donnell Show and How I Met Your Mother. I even got paid to watch Seinfeld while producing the extras for the series release on DVD. I’ve spent many a night and weekend transforming photos and home movies into video montages for private clients, through my production company, Cinetoast. And I parlayed my love of writing and cooking into Tortfeeder, the food blog I maintained while a law school wife.
Write!
My grandparents owned a children’s bookstore, so kids’ books have always been a big part of my life. Before my daughter was born, we received an “astoundishing” (to quote Clementine, one of my favorite characters) library of children’s books, selected and collected by those nearest and dearest to me. No surprise, she’s been a bookworm since birth. In 2016, I decided it was high time to act on my lifelong dream of writing for kids.
I kicked things off with two wonderful classes on writing picture books at UCLA Extension. I found my people in that first class, and we started a critique group that has become a writing family. I joined SCBWI and was off to the races. I’ve been an active and eager participant in live and virtual events hosted by SCBWI, The Writing Barn, the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and more. You can frequently find me — often with my now-big-kid in tow — at our favorite local independent bookstores, Children’s Book World and Diesel.
Fun Facts!
No website is complete without a few tidbits of ridiculous and inconsequential information, right?
I used to say I wanted to be an orphan because of Annie. (What? It looked fun.) I named my dog Randy (a subtle tribute to Sandy).
I was on the local news when I was nine, shown sliding into first base during a little league game. (It wasn’t strategic. There was a puddle.) Even though I went on to pitch 113 strikeouts in one season of high school softball, this will forever be my crowning athletic achievement.
Serving as the captain of the hall patrol in third grade remains my greatest contribution to law enforcement.
During college I worked at the Olympics in Atlanta. One highlight: bringing Al Roker his pants.
My top three travel memories are: riding an elephant in Thailand, balancing an egg on a nail while standing on the equator in Ecuador, and doing a headstand on a surfboard (while surfing! during my second lesson ever!) in Kauai, Hawaii.
