Yes! I love being an author! Writing stories for kids is the best!

Most of the names in my book come from my daughter’s class list from Kindergarten. “The Firebird” is one of my favorite classical pieces. I played “Simple Gifts” in middle school band (on the flute). I sorted into Slytherin, like Amie and Bella. I have composer statues, like the ones in Ms. Sato’s music room!… Read more »

Part of my writing is an escape from my engineering job, which is very technical and precise. But some skills have transferred over. I’ll give you three: In engineering, the idea is to design something, test it, and if it doesn’t work, redesign and retest. It’s a cycle. Writing is a similar cycle: write, get… Read more »

My day job is called Experimental Flight Test Instrumentation Operations Engineer. That’s a lot of words. Basically, I work with helicopters (Apaches and Chinooks). In Experimental Flight Test, sometimes people want to switch out parts: a different engine or a new blade. They want to know what the vibrations are (or the temperature or the… Read more »

Since I was a sophomore in college (that’s like grade 14). So, it’s been about 23 years!

I’m working on another book for grades 3-7! It is about a girl whose parents are divorced. Her father is an engineer, her mother is an artist. And she is torn between the two interests (but really loves engineering the most).

Not at this time. Amie’s story came to a nice conclusion. But if another book were about one of the other characters, that would be fun. But it’s not in the works right now.

I like SO many books. I was a huge reader before I became a writer. I love the Harry Potter books, the Wrinkle in Time books, the Amari books, lots of graphic novels, and many books by my author friends.

Miracle came from several places: I heard a Bible story about Simeon, who waited at the temple until he met Jesus. And once he met Jesus, he said his life’s purpose was complete and he could die happy. (It’s speculated Simeon was very old). I wondered, what if there was a young girl who fulfilled… Read more »

I get ideas everywhere! A lot of my ideas come from my own life. I had a difficult middle grade experience, so a lot of tidbits come from there. Sometimes a character will stay in my head for a long time and doesn’t have a story until another idea comes along.