My life is an unfolding adventure, with lessons to learn and opportunities to take — finding humor along the way.

I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Syracuse University with a major in metalsmithing. I worked as a jeweler for sixteen years  in Philadelphia and  in Pittsburgh. I also travelled to Arizona several times to do construction work on Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's 'city of the future'.

Then, a couple things happened.

In 1984, I gave birth to my son. Six month later, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Those events shifted my focus for quite a while. When I came up for breath, I felt the impetus to find new creative activities.

I became active working for women's rights and equal justice. I am one of the founding mothers of the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania. I served on the boards of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Women Donors Network the Women’s Law Project and volunteered with other progressive organizations.

For fun, I attended a series of playshops for grown-ups (non-competitive play, art, and storytelling). I loved it, and eventually led my own playshops. In 1999 I wrote and published a workbook for hosting playshops, It's Our Turn to Play!!!

Playshops led to storytelling, led to working with an improv troupe, led to acting rolls in a couple films, and…led to writing fiction.

I've loved fantasy since I was a kid. When I was young I found few protagonists I could identify with. Way back then women were idealized beauties or window dressing. Fully developed females tended to be evil hags instead of heroes. So, I started writing my own fantasy.

In 2014, I attended a master class at Hedgebrook. The friendships I made there coalesced into the Roving Writers, my writing group. We meet regularly to support each other and our writing. Together we've workshopped with authors Gail Tsukiyama, Erica Bauermeister, Kathy Fish and Max Hipp.

I've had the pleasure of attending the Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavik, Iceland for many years and now serve on their Advisory Board.

Not surprisingly, my writing has expanded beyond fantasy. My flash story, It Used to be Called Trenton, won third prize in Writer Advice. The Care and Propagation of Azaleas won second prize in the Ageless Authors competition. My work has been short-listed in Women On Writing and long-listed in Bumble Bee.