My bio--I have been writing ever since I was four. I finished my M.A. in English at San Diego State University a few years ago and then taught college English for ten years. I often take my book settings from places I've visited or lived at, like the American South, Ireland, New Zealand, and England. My first publishing credits were a few poems in literary magazines and an essay included in a 1996 anthology about motherhood, called Our Mothers, Ourselves. Like a Tree Planted (science fiction, hardbound edition, 1995) was my first published novel. I was diagnosed with breast lymphoma early in 1996 after my youngest child was born and underwent four months of chemotherapy treatments. Now free of cancer, I'm promoting my nonfiction cancer survival story, Crossing the Chemo Room and its sequel I Saw You in the Moon (which deals with Surviving the Cure--chemotherapy and the nerve damage, pain, and miscarriages it caused me to have).

I get much of my inspiration from my family. My oldest daughter Kristen (the model for many of my photos and the cover of Like a Tree Planted) is a nurse and was a missionary to Mexico where she met her husband Jeremy. They got married and had a son, Joshua, age 4, and a daughter named Abigail, going on 2 (Oh, God, I'm a Grandmother!). My oldest son Ryan is a computer networker and is in the U.S. Army. He has a son, Jake, who is 8 months old. My youngest children, Jessica (age 16) and Jonathan (age 13), sadly, have had no contact with me for a year and a half, since my terrible divorce from their father Edd. He won everything in court (see my "I Lost Everything" page).

I remarried last April--a sweet classical guitarist and singer from Mexico named Miguel. We live in the California mountains among evergreen trees where we can hike, ski, snowshoe, and ice skate. I stay home to work on my web pages, write, and take care of our parrot and 3 dogs. We are involved in a local church and thank Christ for his miracles in our lives. My newest novel is a fantasy, Selah of the Summit (which is also a Christian alternative to Harry Potter). The Selah trilogy is my tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and his love of the mountains. Selah is a slavegirl who finds freedom and love in the mountains. I'm working on the 2nd Selah book, Selah's Sword, which is set mostly in a place like New Zealand (I use Maori words, nature names, and customs). You can read the first few chapters on this website.

I used to spend summers (their winters) in New Zealand, where a whole untouched, beautiful, clean world opened like a glistening green door. The children went to their first public school. Jessica was on the Ski Team. Jonathan won "Player of the Day" at his first rugby game. We hiked to waterfalls, drinking the water from streams or rivers or lakes. We breathed the freshest air on the edge of our planet. We stayed on sheepfarms and in towns. I shared my cancer survival story with churches, home fellowships, bookstore patrons, New Zealand Cancer Societies, and Kiwi people everywhere. You can read about some of our adventures and see photos on this website--expect more of both in the future. My children helped me place my 4 books all over New Zealand. In 2004, Jonathan made a documentary called "What Does Daffodil Day Mean to You?" in Wellington--on Daffodil Day, the day when the NZ Cancer Society raises millions of dollars, and all Kiwis buy small silk daffodil pins. Jessica made little yellow signs with flowers on them. The signs said: "True Cancer Survival Books and Fantasy--Signed by Author--$10, and all the money goes to the NZ Cancer Society." We had great fun doing that, and even more fun giving the books away to astonished people who asked,

"How can you do this?"

And later I would think of a good answer, "Because I have a rich Father."

In 2006 I made the big mistake of seeking refuge from a troubled marriage--in New Zealand, with my 2 youngest children, where we lived for over 7 months before being forced back to California. I went through a bitter divorce and child custody case, and I lost everything--mostly because I had no lawyer and tried to defend myself in court while addicted to prescription medications (I felt entitled to them as a cancer survivor). Now free of all medication, I am trying to write that story. If you are an Editor, Literary Agent, Filmmaker, or someone who can give me good advice, please Contact Me.

My motto is that Christ, who died for the sins of everyone and rose again to give us eternal life (see John 3:16), can bring anyone through the darkest places and to His light. All you need to do is ask Him, in a simple prayer, to come into your life. You can have a personal relationship with Him, and someday He will turn all of our sorrows and pain into joy. He will wipe away all our tears (see Revelation 21). I have survived a tragic childhood, divorce, cancer, miscarriages, evacuating a burning mountain, and other things I do not print. You can survive too. "With God, all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

My childhood wasn't easy. My father, a hopeless alcoholic who had been in and out of hospitals, shot himself to death in front of me and my mother when I was almost five years old. My mother, blaming herself for his death, soon became an alcoholic herself. She dragged my younger brother and me around the United States. I stayed in more states than most people visit. I attended more schools than I can list. We lived like gypsies--sometimes in tents, sometimes in our car.

Then, at age fourteen, I landed in Virginia and went to a home Bible study. There I heard the simple Good News that Christ came to this earth to die and rise again for people like me. I asked Him to forgive my sins (yes, I had some) and come into my heart and life. He did. I found a local Baptist church, joined the choir and youth group, and went off to a Christian college. At age 18, I moved to California to marry a navy jet pilot.

I had two children and traveled around the world with the jet pilot. My mother died when I was twenty-four. My brother disappeared a few months later. Due (in part) to long sea deployments, my marriage failed. I encountered child custody problems, got my Master's degree in English, taught college English, wrote several unpublished novels and some published poems, married a fellow writer/English teacher, had two more children, published an environmental science fiction novel called Like a Tree Planted, and began to feel tired, achy, and feverish for no apparent reason. Then I found a lump in my breast. I was nursing my youngest child. He was only five months old. I was an abused wife.

"God," I prayed, taking a breath in my soap-opera life, "You couldn't possibly give me cancer."

I had no full-time teaching job with medical benefits, security, or adequate income. I had to keep working, dealing with babysitters, and juggling classes and kids . . . I couldn't take time out to get a life-threatening illness.

I got on my knees and prayed, tears in my raised voice, as we waited for the biopsy results,

"Please don't let it be cancer."

After our prayer, I walked into the children's room which was lit only by a blue nightlight and watched baby Jonathan and three-year-old Jessica sleep. (My oldest were with their father and stepmother in Washington). "God," I pleaded, "Don't shove my life in my face. Don't make me think about leaving them."

God answered my prayer, but in a different way than I expected. Jesus never promised that we wouldn't suffer on this earth--He himself endured pain for our sakes and then rose in new life. He proved that beauty can come at the end of suffering.

The lump turned out to be non-hodgkins lymphoma, intermediate grade--very rare to show up in the breast. My oncologist called me "one in a million."

I felt special.

Before I knew it, I had a CAT-scan and a bone marrow biopsy. These tests determined that I was in Stage One of the disease--good news. A week later I entered The Chemo Room. For four months, while I continued teaching college English classes and taking care of my household and children, I got chemotherapy treatments--bright-colored liquids from I.V. bags that took two hours a session to enter my veins. The chemicals themselves were labeled "Danger--Carcinogens." The nurses who mixed them wore masks, thick gloves, and blue surgical smocks.

Friends helped with the housework. I usually went alone to The Chemo Room and sat in a green recliner, beneath the tall steel poles which held I.V. bags. The local church organized casseroles and babysat the children.

Besides the nausea that followed each treatment and the inevitable hair loss, I actually felt pretty good through the chemo, much better than while sick with the cancer.

Now, more than 12 years since I finished chemotherapy, I still feel well. I've retired from teaching to focus on my writing and photography. Jonathan is 13 years old and a talented filmmaker. Jessica, 16, is a gifted poet. My two oldest children, Kristen and Ryan, have their own families and visit when they can. My cancer survival book, Crossing the Chemo Room, is doing well, and I have given it to many cancer patients and clinics all over the world. Its sequel, I Saw You in the Moon, has also been published. We have spent our last three summers in New Zealand, selling my four published books and donating the money to the New Zealand Cancer Society. I speak at health fairs and urge women to do breast cancer screening. I write my fantasy and science fiction novels and work on my website while my children use educational software on the computer next to me. God has richly blessed us.

I know the cancer may return. None of us is guaranteed a long lifespan. Sometimes I'm afraid I'll find another lump and have to face chemo--or early death--again. Then I remember some words the Apostle Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy:

"for God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."