I was born in Ohio near the Air Force base where my father spent most of his military career. I have one brother and our family of four thrived in a small college town named Yellow Springs where diversity and acceptance were a non-negotiable and warmly embraced way of life. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in optimism and protest, with the best two decades of music as my lifelong playlist. My husband, Charles, and I have been married for 40+ years. I am a retired high school English teacher and school counselor, and he is retired from the Army and the federal government. During his thirty-year military career, we moved eleven times in seventeen years. Our three children learned a lot about the world but also had the challenges of transition and upheaval. Reading was one of the activities that helped them during those times. They are all married now, and they have blessed us with eleven “grand” grandchildren! I am what some might call a ‘late bloomer’ - although therapists and life coaches will always say “it’s never too late to follow your dreams”! I finished my bachelor’s degree in my mid-twenties, my first master’s degree in my thirties, and had my third child in my thirties as well. After years in administrative and legal jobs wherever we were stationed, I became a teacher in my forties - which included five years as the department chair - and then I earned a second master’s degree to become a school counselor. The idea to write children’s books was with me throughout my career, but the workload of a teacher and counselor didn’t leave much room for writing. Once I retired, I had the mindshare and the time to develop my themes, which were largely influenced by watching my children parent their little ones. I could see in them the end-of-the-day fatigue, and I remembered how often I had felt that I hadn’t accomplished much of anything in a day; and then there was the bedtime story they were still waiting to hear me read to them.My Mommy’s Hands celebrates the everyday tasks that mommy’s do for their children that make them feel loved, safe, and important; and it is the first of five books in The Parent Series. The moms in the book represent many ethnicities as parenting is universal. If Daddy happens to read the story, he can easily replace ‘mommy’ with ‘daddy’ as there are so many hands-on dads who lovingly care for their children. Four more completed manuscripts - two celebrating dads - will hopefully be published in the near future. My Mommy's Hands is a 2024 winner of the International Impact Book Awards and a second-place winner of The Book Fest Awards for Spring 2024.When I’m not writing, I occupy my hands with crochet and needlepoint (it keeps me out of the refrigerator), and I enjoy watching movies of all genres, reading novels and biographies, baking, and spending time with my husband and grandchildren. Read more about this authorRead less about this author