I grew up in a small town in eastern Washington spending some of my childhood in the fruit orchards of the Yakima’s lower valley on my grandparents’ land where The Orchard Keeperes is set. After spending years as an ICU nurse in Seattle and a short stint doing medical missionary work in Kerala India, I turned to writing. In 1998, I received an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College for Writers. In 2003, I received the Washington State Artist Trust literature fellowship for an excerpt of this first novel now called The Orchard Keepers. I am grateful for my residency at Hedgebrook in 2002 and blessed to return as alumni in April 2008 and 2015. Though I continue to focus on long fiction, two new pieces are coming out in June 2019. A few of my short pieces have been awarded finalist status in several contests including Glimmer Train Family Matters, Leap Frog Press and Reynolds Price contest.  I am at work on my second novel, Shadow Sister and live in Seattle, Washington with my family.