Over the course of my career, I have been pleased to call myself an educator, entomologist, heritage interpreter, and an agroforestry extension agent, among other things. Through it all, I have written stories and poetry for my own pleasure. I published my first writing as a child in the 1970s, and used to confound my science teachers with poetry, scribbled at the end of essay questions. Now, after completing several novels, and having a number of short stories and poems published I'm happy to call myself an author. My first love was the natural world, and it plays a large part in most of my stories. I have been fortunate to be able to explore the outdoors in much of the eastern United States, Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, and New Zealand. I currently live near Christchurch, New Zealand with my husband, two children, four goats, three chickens and one evil cat.