My first published book is coming soon. Agent representation and publishing opportunities are coming my way any day now.

I have taught elementary school for 19 years. That is a lot of time with books, specifically picture books. I have sat on the teacher side of a gather-’round-the-carpet read aloud, watching eyes grow bigger, mouths gape open, and the reactionary yelling out in response to the events in a picture book. The experience of watching kids love picture books has always been inspirational. However, I never thought that I could write picture books of my own. I was teaching a Lucy Caulkins writer’s workshop course to first graders one year. She promotes the idea of kids collecting seed stories and using mentor texts to learn a specific skill and then try it in your own writing. So I, too started collecting seed stories and reading mentor texts as a way to model for the children. What I ended up uncovering within myself was a list of ideas centered around a black or biracial boy, which I was seeking for my son at the time and had a very hard time finding on the market. Passion was uncovered. The writing bug had bitten me - hard. It became my passion, the thing I researched and studied, until I had enough writer’s tools and practice to write a story of my own that felt like and sounded like the gather-’round-the-carpet read aloud books that I loved to read to my students. I’m here to tell you, adult or child reader, that you can do the thing that you want to learn how to do. Even if today, as you read this, you have no idea how, you can do it! If I can become something new - a picture book author- after 40 years old, you can do it, too!