About the Author

Originally from Syracuse, New York, I moved to Prescott, Arizona in 1972. After graduating from high school, I found jobs in Prescott were scarce to none. Through a friend's connection, I began a U.S. Forest Service career as a fire timekeeper for the Catalina Hot Shots. Fascinated by their line of work, I made the decision in 1976 to become a firefighter. What I didn't know at the time, was that I just became one of the first women to work on a Forest Service fire crew.

Over the next seven years, I worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Arizona, and the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska and Colorado.

After my career ended abruptly, I made a decision to attend college. In 1990 I graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture. I returned to the U of A for a Masters Degree in planning, graduating in 1994. In 2001 I became a Registered Landscape Architect. In 2004, I became a Certified Arborist.

Since 2009 I've produced over a thousand articles about desert gardening, plants, and design. I have also written dozens of articles about writing memoir, the challenges of finding a traditional publisher and book promotion.

When in college in 1986, I wrote about my first fire. The professor was impressed, and asked to keep it for future classes as an example of a well-crafted story. Later I returned to the idea of writing about my firefighting career in 2009, and again wrote a short story. After sharing with friends and receiving positive feedback, I decided to turn the story into a full memoir. I signed a contract with Bedazzled Ink Publishing in 2017. Summers of Fire: A Memoir of Adventure, Love and Courage was released on May 1, 2018, and is available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and select bookstores throughout Arizona.

The prequel to Summers of Fire, Uprooted: A New Life In The Arizona Sun, will be released December 1st, 2021.  Check this blog for an excerpt.

If you are new to Arizona and struggle to figure out how to grow plants here, come visit my blog on gardening and landscaping for the desert, Arizona Gardener, where I have plenty of information on growing vegetables and landscape plants. I teach classes in my community on these topics, so if you are in the Tucson area you're in luck! Contact me and I will  explain the where and whens.

As a watercolor artist, my watercolor gallery offers paintings for sale. Included in the gallery are paintings of Florida Ranger Station in the Santa Rita Mountains, where I spent a very memorable three summers on a 10-person fire suppression crew.

If you have any questions or would like to contact me, use the comment form or leave a comment on any page. I will respond.