A little about me …

In the world of I, there is a whole lot of me. Hope­fully this self-serving page doesn’t give the wrong impres­sion. Though I’m not a big-wig or a super­star, writ­ing is my pas­sion. And so I share.

I love to write. Whether it’s music or sto­ries, I’ve never been bored because my brain is always work­ing a mile a minute. There is so lit­tle time to get every­thing done! If only I could write as fast as I think.

I am a music educator who has worked a million jobs in the past and continues to run a muck in the present. I have had amazing students and feel so lucky to work with teenagers. Outside of public education I’ve done just about every vol­un­teer job you can think of, from run­ning a food drive to a for­mal ban­quet and the­atri­cal show. But more than any­thing, I love being a mom. There are times when you want to pull your hair out, yet noth­ing com­pares to the absolute unity of a fam­ily. Though I might search the world over, my favorite peo­ple will always be the ones with whom I have shared a roof, past or present. Kids are loyal and strong. If only I could learn to be a kid again.

My Favorite Things:

There’s no way to nar­row this down. I love clas­si­cal music — obvi­ously. To put it more plainly, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Con­certo No. 1 makes me go weak in the knees, as do Puccini’s operas. But, unlike many clas­si­cal musi­cians, I also love pop and rock. Go Elton John — Aida was the best! (As was Hamilton – of course.) And yes, as you may have heard, I am a Super­man fan. Who wouldn’t want to be a super hero? From Star Trek to Jane Austen … there’s such a wide vari­ety of fan­tas­tic in the world and I can’t help but appre­ci­ate it all.

Books:

My first novel, Class Col­li­sion: Fall From Grace was pub­lished in Sep­tem­ber, 2010 by Out­skirts Press. In June of 2011 it was repub­lished by Man­dolin Pub­lish­ing. The sequel, Class Col­li­sion: Phoenix Ris­ing was also pub­lished by Man­dolin Pub­lish­ing in June 2011. The Forgotten Queen was published a few years later, as were my Music Theory Worksheets book. If you’d like to read what blog­gers have said about my books click HERE.

Other Works:

I’ve writ­ten two full-length musi­cal plays which were per­formed in Boise, Idaho. My first show, “The Promised Land” was performed in July of 2003 and my second show, “Saul” was performed in July of 2006. I have begun orchestrating and uploading my “The Promised Land” music here on this webpage. Feel free to take a look. I have also writ­ten a num­ber of unpub­lished sto­ries.

Awards:

My novel, Class Col­li­sion: Fall From Grace, received the Gold Award from Read­ers Favorite Book Awards in the YA Com­ing of Age category. The Forgotten Queen received a Silver Award.

Edu­ca­tion:

I have a bachelor’s degree in music from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Studying music there was an incredible privilege and I loved every second of it. I also spent a few semesters study­ing music com­po­si­tion at Boise State. You may have heard of our foot­ball team. Go Broncos! (Boise is awesome!) My master’s degree is in Secondary Music Education from Boston University. (I absolutely love Boston University! I could go on and on and on about how amazing it is.) I am so grateful for the educational opportunities I’ve had in my life and encourage anyone thinking about higher education to pursue those dreams and take those classes. Thank you, BYU, BSU, and BU!