About

Short Version:

I grew up in a small town in Canada with a single mom. I moved to the United States in the late 90s to work for a global company, and now reside in the Southern USA with my family.

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Long Version:

I've been a singer/songwriter since grade school and recorded three albums as an adult. I've been involved in theatre productions in middle school and high school. And a half dozen in the past decade.​

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Academics came easily for me throughout my school years. I was able to memorize the daily work for upcoming tests. However, in ninth grade, I struggled with typing—I almost failed a mandatory first-year typing class! At the time, I told myself it was because I was new at it and we never had a computer at home. But this wasn't the case. When I got to university, I was told that writing my papers in cursive was not permitted and typing was mandatory for all my course papers. So I bought a typewriter.

 

During my first year, I was beyond frustrated and embarrassed. No matter how hard I tried, my fingers could not learn the keys on the keyboard without making massive errors. (I might have single-handedly kept the correction fluid industry afloat that year!) I left the University in tears most days. I had no idea that I was dyslexic. I was so distraught and overwhelmed, taking two buses to and from school, then to my night job to pay for my room & board. I felt like most of the kids I talked to in university who didn't know what they wanted to do but felt the pressure to go. After my first year, I took a corporate sales job a friend told me about. I wanted to save and buy a car. I decided not to return with a full scholarship. (My mom thought I was nuts!) University was the hardest year of my life, for many reasons, and I learned so much about myself, too. 

 

I worked for the corporation for a year or so, then left for an international opportunity. I had to work for one year before I could transfer to the States, and moving to LA was the best-worst year of my life. I lived with five people in a house, rode a bicycle to work in an industrial area, and considered moving home when I ran out of money, but I refused. I stuck with it. I became a manager, then after another transfer and promotion, I became Director of North America for a department in the company. After a handful of trials and errors in the love department, I met a wonderful man, got married, and had children. I became a consultant, hiring and training people, setting up new departments, as it became clear I could spot the 'why' behind bottlenecks at companies, and I prefer complex challenges to rule-based, logical thinking. I've experienced the positives when these two mindsets work together... Many AHA moments. 

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When COVID-19 hit in 2020, we were stuck inside like everyone else. My husband encouraged me to write down my vivid dreams. I was worried, as some of them are unorthodox, and knowing my past issues with typing, I was initially apprehensive. To my surprise, after typing my first novel with my two index fingers quickly, I haven't stopped typing. I'm amazed at how fast I can type with two index fingers, and with fewer mistakes than in my university days!

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After my first novel, I wrote a two-book whodunit series. And I set those aside when my friend asked me in 2021 if I'd go to Thrillerfest with her in 2022.

 

I took the first chapters of a new story I had started and began writing a dark, psychological, science-based thriller. I woke up every day at 3 am, determined to finish it, and once book one was done, I knew I had to keep this world going. Book two didn't take me long, and I told myself I'd stop at book three, but I couldn't. I knew I had to write book four.  At the end of book four, I left room for a book five, but I have no plans to continue right now, as I have a dozen new stories I want to write before I'm too old and these two fingers change, as they do when we age. Growing up, my pet peeve was secrets, so I added one secret after another and hid Easter eggs throughout the saga. I'm excited to release Book 1, now my debut novel, Viola Ted.​

 

I prefer truth over polished fiction. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, I prefer living people, not characters (or monsters), to show human flaws. We all have them. It's important to me to show that we are not separate from nature, but a part of it. And how history repeats itself under the same cultural and societal pressures that have driven humanity's rise and fall for centuries.

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I write every day, visually and cinematically, blocking scenes and noting camera angles as I later translate my stories and short stories into screenplays. I've been taking film directing courses since 2024, filming proof-of-concept shorts and working with local filmmakers, and not only do I love it, but I also feel like I've come full circle in the arts that inspired me as a child.

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​I'm grateful to my husband, my family, every mentor, and every stranger who has impacted my journey. I would not be where I am without your encouragement and support. I'm sincerely thrilled to be writing and directing.​ I look forward to sharing my fictionalized stories with you on the page and on screen!

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P.S. 

For those of you who wish to write, whether you're dyslexic or not, write, paint, draw, sculpt, sing, perform, build, create-if that's what you love to do. All forms of story connect us, and the most important connection we gain through our creativity is with ourselves.

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"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." William Shakespeare. 

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Note: A friend asked what I mean by "complex vs logic": There are no boxes in my mind. As a storyteller, I don't follow any particular rules. I write what I write, and whatever happens, happens. I'm very aware that modern public schools were heavily shaped in the 19th century, and I feel the magic of my creativity when I let my imagination run. I'm an intuitive writer; I don't plot things out in my mind or on paper. I'm as shocked or delighted as you are reading my stories. I so appreciate my beta readers' and my editors' notes.

Thank YOU for supporting living creatives. Stay real, eh!