My Story
Growing up in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky, I loved playing outside with my younger brother, Matthew. Some of my favorite days were when we headed into the woods in the mornings and spent the day exploring the forest and playing in the creeks. I also loved time with my cousins, school, stories, and books. Although I initially struggled to learn to read, reading became as much a part of me as my skin. By my final elementary school years, I was the kid who fell asleep every night straining my eyes in the sliver of moonlight trying to read when I should have been sleeping.
I started writing short stories and poetry in elementary school, and my first short story was published in the local newspaper when I was thirteen years old. After graduating from high school, I attended Eastern Kentucky University (EKU). I studied English Education and fell absolutely in love with teaching reading and writing. I taught for seven years for the local community college while completing my first Master of Arts degree.
I now live in Georgia with my husband and am a proud mother of four. After seven years in the classroom, I transitioned to the administrative side of higher education and now work to help students navigate the path to graduation.
As an adult, one of the things I value most is family. I was fortunate to be from a large family that spent time together, told stories, and sang songs. I was also blessed that my family was a blend of Irish/Scottish and Cherokee. Those roots combined made me who I am today.
One of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, once said, “You’re going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that’s tugging on the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions, and songs – your truth, your version of things- in your own voice. That’s really all you have to offer us, and that’s also why you were born” (2017). I will always love writing. It allows me to share the best part of me. I write children’s stories, short stories, poetry, and memoirs. I also journal daily. My teaching is now in the form of workshops, conferences, and school/library visits.
If you’d like to read my answers to my most Frequently Asked Questions, click here.
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