Biography

I have been writing since I was seven years old, when I taught myself to type using my father’s big metal Smith Corona typewriter and a record (yes, vinyl) that instructed me on where to place my fingers. I wrote plays in 4th through 6th grade that my classmates loved performing, because it got us out of class! I wrote my first novel between the ages of 11 and 13 (120 typewritten pages); however, despite the fact that it was about drug trafficking (about which I knew nothing), took place in New York City (which I had never visited), and involved a young woman working at the United Nations (no, I didn’t consider it fantasy), Harper & Row not only referred it to the children’s lit editor (I was deeply insulted), but rejected the book. This led to a creative dry period. There’s nothing like rejection to hit you at your most vulnerable: your sense of entitlement.

A history major in college, I fell in love with cultural anthropology after taking the class “Anthropology of Women” at California State University, Bakersfield. I double-majored, earning a B.A. in both fields, then went on to UCLA to earn my doctorate in cultural anthropology. I published “Food, Sex and Salvation: The Role of Discourse in a Recovery House for Eating Disorders” in the book, Many Mirrors: Body Image and Social Relations, Nicole Sault, ed., 1994, before returning first to fiction and then to creative nonfiction—but as a hobby! I never tried to get anything published. I wrote because I needed to write. I’ve found there’s a comfort in writing that I find nowhere else in the world.

In 1997, I started my own business, Transforming Local Communities, Inc. (TLC)., which provides program evaluation services for education, public health, mental health, and criminal justice programs. My grant writing skills (a side hobby) have brought more than $12 million into central California counties over the past 30 years. I regularly offer workshops in facilitation skills, risk and resilience, family systems, group process, and evaluation.

I went back to school in 2013 (it’s a bit of an addiction) and received a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Antioch University Los Angeles in 2016.

In 1999, I attended my first Remember the Magic Summer Conference with the International Women’s Writing Guild. This amazing cadre of sister-writers and instructors was instrumental in keeping my writing life alive. I was fortunate to serve as co-executive director of the IWWG from 2014 to 2017. I continued to serve as conference coordinator through 2019.

In 2018, I started a nonprofit, Transitional Youth Mobilizing for Change (TYM4Change) in Kern County, California that focuses on youth 16-24 years of age, providing them with the skills to identify and address issues of concern in their communities through a process called youth participatory action research. While I was executive director, I worked with our youth to produce a 40-minute documentary film, Invisible: The Unseen Faces of Hunger in Kern (available on YouTube) that was accepted into three film festivals in 2021 and became part of an Amazon Prime indie film production. TYM4Change continues to do wonderful work in the community. I remain connected to the organization and provide training and technical assistance to youth and staff on an ongoing basis.

My current projects include works of creative nonfiction, personal essay, and fantasy. At long last I am starting the hard work of sending my work out into the world. Ithia’s Dance, the first in a fantasy series, The Sun God’s Children, is currently under contract, with a 2026 publication date.

Covid taught us just how much work can be done from home. In 2022 I moved to central Arizona to be closer to family. I live at 5,000’, in beautiful Prescott Valley, with my three cats, Hildi, Iris, and Kali, but still commute regularly to California.