Before going into the usual information about me, I thought I might start with some lighthearted facts.

As a kid, I always brought home stay animals. Once I brought home a stray dog, which ended up saving my little brother’s life by defending him from a probably rabid sewer rat that was attacking him.

I occasionally breed Miniature Poodles. Two of them are Reading Education Assistance Dogs (“R.E.A.D”) at Monroe Elementary School (in southern California,) and one recently retired from the “PAWS to Read” program at the San Lorenzo (CA) Library. Both programs use dogs to help teach very young kids learn to read with confidence.

 

All my life I believed that “a working desk is a messy desk.” I would leave handwritten “to do” notes and project notes all over the place. Everybody would wonder how I ever found anything in the crazy piles of paper. Now I work with a laptop computer, a cell phone, and an iPad – – each of which is able to keep me organized and on track. I love them all. But I still keep all kinds of notes on scraps of paper, and I still have a messy desk.

Now for some of the more traditional information: I am retired from a rewarding and successful career in market research and in marketing consumer products. In both jobs, much of my time was spent writing papers like research summaries and marketing recommendations. Later, while serving on an Advisory Board at UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health, I wrote numerous articles for the Center. And, while on the Poodle Club of America Foundation Board I wrote articles, reviews and summaries about the Foundation’s work. I have always liked writing but it’s hard work and I never thought of it as fun. With writing picture books, I still find writing hard work but now I am having fun!

The Jacket Nobody Wanted is my first picture book. My niece, Lauren Schroeder, did the cover and the illustrations. This was our first collaboration, it has been such a neat and rewarding experience that not only do we plan on doing many more; we’ve already started planning our next book.

I’ve always had an interest in children’s books, especially those that use the story to teach a valuable lesson about life or self-awareness. The older I get the more I realize how important it is to have kids be exposed to this kind of story.

I never had any children myself (but I survived three teenagers, three big dogs, a horse and the Gerbils that came along with my husband). Nevertheless, even as a teenager, I was actively involved in my mother’s nursery school, where I helped children develop life skills – often by reading to them. After retiring I served for many years with my husband on the Board of Directors for our local Boys and Girls Club.

Now, when I’m not writing children’s books, I’m busy training, showing and caring for my five Miniature Poodles and two devilish black and white cats I rescued from a local feed store.