Dear Readers — Longtime and New,

Thank you for your presence here, and thank you for bringing my books to life by making them part of your lives. Writing a story is only the beginning. Reading is a creative act. Each reading gives new meaning to a story’s ongoing life. I am grateful to you all.

The daughter of an Episcopal priest, I grew up steeped in biblical stories. I am also the daughter of a mother who loved to read aloud to her children—fairytales, mythologies, the children’s novels of E. Nesbit and C.S. Lewis to name a few. Next door to the church was an abandoned, overgrown estate that I knew was enchanted. Stepping over a gap in a stone wall from one world to another is a primary experience that informs all my work: fiction, poetry, and my only work of nonfiction, My Life as a Prayer.

In Fall 2024, I am reissuing Murder at the Rummage Sale, set in the time and place of my childhood. More than one character will step over that gap in the stone wall. All the Perils of This Night, a standalone sequel, follows the characters eight years later as they brave the dangers of a different world. In the Spring, 2025 look for my latest book: Over the Edge of this World, a Fairytale Novel, featuring four elemental grannies.

I am happy to report that The Maeve Chronicles, The Wild Mother, The Return of the Goddess, How to Spin Gold, My Life as a Prayer, and my poem collection, Tell Me the Story Again, all remain in print. (See the Books Page.)

As a novelist, I have always lived a double life, one in the stories, one in the world, each one affecting the other. In the world, I am married, have grown children, am growing old. For many years I facilitated celebrations and other gatherings at the former Center at High Valley. Ordained an interfaith minister and counselor, I have been in private practice for over twenty-five years, now semi-retired.

This year new challenges and adventures are coming. My husband Douglas and I are leaving our “happy hermitage,” where we have lived for eleven years, to move to a townhouse in Briarwood Court—an address evocative of fairytales! On the other side of an ancient ridge we love, our new home will be a big change for us. Nothing is predictable, but I trust, once there, I will complete a collection of new and selected poems and begin writing my next novel.

Thank you again, dear readers, for visiting this site. Do sign up for the mailing list if you would like to receive my not-at-all frequent newsletters. I wish you the best in all your work—and play!

Blessed Bees and other pollinators!