About Me

I was born in Bangor, Maine and grew up in Freeport, Maine, where I pretty much had my nose in a book my entire childhood (just ask my parents or siblings). This means, of course, that I got to live many childhoods - -some of them in other countries and other times; even on other planets. I met people of all different ages from other countries and religions. I traveled all over the world, all while sitting with "my nose in a book." Read Emily Dickinson's poem, "There is no Frigate like a Book" to see the way she explains this idea.


My dad used to read me Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes before I was able to read them for myself. Mom read me Little Golden Books. I loved all the little Golden Books: The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, The Little Red Hen, and Chicken Little. When I was a little older, some of my favorite authors were Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys), E. L. Konigsberg (From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler), and E. B. White (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little). I also really liked Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Anthologies.

When I was in high school I read a lot of science fiction and historical fiction. Stephen R. Donaldson, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley and Kurt Vonnegut were favorites. I remember loving Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Hawaii by James Michener, Come Spring by Ben Ames Williams, and Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts. These are the kind of books I was sorry to see come to an end even though they were hundreds of pages long. I also read a lot of Harlequin Romances. My grandmother always had a stack of them next to her chair and I'd read them whenever I went to visit her.

Now I live in upstate New York, where I have my nose in a book a lot of the time (just ask my husband and kids). I'm married to a handsome, charming and intelligent man, and we have two handsome, charming and intelligent sons (they take after their father). When I'm not writing (or reading), I teach elementary school in Albany, New York.

Among other things, I've worked researching fruit bats in Costa Rica and observing peregrine falcons in Maine and Mississippi kites in Kansas. The picture here shows me holding a Mississippi kite. (I was a lot younger then.) I've also been an order taker at Mickey D's, a bartender, a reporter, a busboy (busgirl?) and a high school English teacher.

That's enough narrative. Let's have a list.

That's all of my favorites for now. When I think of more I'll add to the list.
Email me and let me know your favorites, or ask me about favorites that aren't on this list and maybe I'll add them.