How did you start writing? Growing up, I honestly didn’t enjoy reading. Learning to read was incredibly challenging. My father invested in Hooked on Phonics, afterschool tutors, and the Sylvan Learning Center. It was a long road to get where I am today. While all my friends were reading the newest, higher-level books, I was behind. In 7th grade I was still reading 4th-grade level stories such as R.L. Stine and The Box Car Children. I had to hide the books I loved because other kids were making fun of me. I worked as a nanny for about 8 years, and picked up a love for reading then and started taking classes by mail where I fell in love with writing and wrote my first picture book, Nonnie and I, during that time (2004/2005).
Where do you like to write, i.e. a coffee shop, park, your office, etc.? I love to write at home, usually on the couch with my dog, Ransom, next to me. I’ve tried to write outside and at the library but I get super distracted when there is other stuff around me, so I find that isolation works best to knock out the words I need to accomplish.
What inspires your writing the most? My day job, my dogs, my mom (who had MS), and my childhood inspire me the most. I love to tell a story that feels like nostalgia in the form of love, hope, and laughter.
Is there anything that sets your writing apart from other authors? I think that because there are so many authors in the world today telling stories, that what sets some of us apart is not the beginning to the end of the novel, but what happens in between, how the reader is transported from the first page to the last. There is a lyric from a Sugarland song that goes: “The first and last breath don’t matter, it’s all the ones that are in between.” I believe that is what sets some of us apart from other authors and how readers fall in love with authors that become their favorites.
What would be your dream location for researching a book? A small, sleepy town in Vermont that has changed little over the years, from the fall to winter months. I would be in dreamland for something such as that!!
Southern Sisters Book Club 