My bio from Writers Read

Reading has been a part of my life for as long as I can recall.

I have very vivid memories of Bing and Sandy, my first grade reading book, and being impatient that we moved so slowly through it. In elementary school I would often finish my work before my classmates and would use the extra time to squeeze in a few pages of whatever book I was reading.

Sometimes I was so engrossed in my book that I did not hear the teacher announce the next subject of the day. Occasionally she would let me keep reading. Soon I caught on, and would feign deafness in order to keep from having to put my book down!

I grew up about four blocks from our local library, and made no less than weekly trips there every summer. I think the musty smell of that old library is permanently embedded in my olfactory lobe.

A love for the written word has followed me into adulthood. I always have a book close at hand – on the coffee table, on the nightstand, in the car, in my messenger bag.

Although my work as a supervisor in the claims department of an insurance company puts food on my table, my true passions lie in reading, writing, and photography. My photography has been displayed at Barnes & Noble, and at some group shows in the Denver area. Relevant Magazine has published a couple of my articles in their on-line magazine.

I also work with a group in Denver called Urban Skye, a mission charged with “connecting the city to its soul” by developing communities that embrace faith, the arts, and service. Currently I function as Urban Skye’s director of Art & Design.

Some of my favorite authors include: Anne Lamott, Brennan Manning, Augusten Burroughs, Bailey White, Ken Gire, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty, Frederick Buechner, and Flannery O’Connor.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web are among my favorite fiction works. I count Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life and Traveling Mercies, and Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel as some of my favorite non-fiction works.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird: "...you don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it, too."