A Little Bit About Me....


I was born the baby of the family to my wonderful mother and my dad, who was a Vietnam Veteran. I came five years after my brother and sister (accident??). Born and raised in Southern California, I have spent most of my life in the city of Ontario, both living and working. I love the history surrounding this town that is always regarded as somewhere in between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

Most of my childhood was spent hanging out with family. It seemed like we went to a birthday party or a BBQ every weekend. Well, I guess that isn't that much different from now. Family has always been an important part of my life. From every grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, to close friends who may as well be family, my parents always instilled the closeness that made everyone feel welcome and loved.

As a kid, the only books I ever remember reading were Judy Blume's Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, an encyclopedia full of nursery rhymes, and The Day I Became An Autodidact by Kendall Hailey. I wasn't much of a reader. I really didn't connect with the classics.

It wasn't till I became an adult that I found the love of reading. For a project for my master's degree, I had to present my BIOBAG, which is a bag full of books, or written materials that portrays a biography of your life. This was a freaking nightmare for me because I didn't read at the time, only textbooks. So I bought tons of books and tried to find different authors and genres that I liked so that I could do my project. In doing so, I fell in love with reading. And I fell HARD! I haven't been able to stop since.

What I discovered was that it wasn't that I didn't like to read, it was that I didn't like to read what I was required to read at school. Had I had the opportunity to choose my own books, I may have become a lifelong reader a heck of a lot sooner. Schools that have SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) have the right idea. Students get to choose their own books to read everyday!! How cool is that! I wanna go back to school! And don't get me wrong, reading the required stuff is important! Had I read a lot during high school, college would have been much easier. 

Despite all the reading, I actually loved school, high school especially. It was a great time full of crazy fun, meeting new people, boyfriends, break-ups, heart-break, friendships, playing soccer (badly), swimming, and more wild and crazy times. This may be the reason why I chose to write a book about a girl in high school. Don't try and figure out which character represents me, or any of my other friends from that time. Believe me, my sister has tried and been unsuccessful. While I cannot lie and say that some of the events in the story are not autobiographical, I can say that the events and characters are a mesh of a lot of experiences that are both fiction and non-fiction. Once I got started, the characters just took on minds of their own.

What am I doing now?
I am married, with four kids ranging in age from 8-23 years old. I currently live in southern California. I'm a high school reading teacher and an adjunct instructor at a local university. My hobbies include writing, checking my email, and anything and everything New Kids on the Block...LOL...(hey Dannytown)!