In second grade, my class visited an old mountain homestead. The smell of sun-bleached wood, and lard and lye soap ignited my imagination. What sticks out in my memory most was a pair of small, impossibly-narrow women’s boots. Someone wore those boots, washed with that bar of soap, and lived their life in that tiny wooden house! I fell in love with writing around the same time because it gave me an outlet for my dizzying imagination. As a sophomore in high school, I took a college-level creative writing class, which helped me understand both how serious I was about writing, and how magic it was to learn how to write. In college I took several creative writing classes as electives, because “being” a writer wasn’t “practical.” After graduating with a Master’s Degree in U.S. History and teaching history for 8 years in tough public schools, all the while putting my writing on the back burner, I finally decided to jettison the “practical” and do what I love. I am currently writing historical fiction, memoir, and personal essays.
Works in Progress
Queen Azalea (a historical fiction novel)
See a video of the author reading from this novel at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop Lit Fest, June 3, 2017.
Fear is a Friend (a memoir)
See a video of the author reading from this memoir at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop Lit Fest, June 4, 2016.
Various personal essays
Publications
Haiku published in Three Line Poetry, Issue #45, September 2017.
Read the free online version
"Glossy Pages", Palimpsest, University of Colorado Creative Arts Journal, 2010.
Reviewed by the Poetry in Picture Series blog, December, 11, 2010
Sentinels of the Sun: Forecasting Space Weather, by Barbara B. Poppe and Kristen P. Jorden, Johnson Books, Boulder, 2006.
Reviewed in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 88, No. 5, May 2007.
Reviewed in the Space Weather Quarterly, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2007.
Nominated for the 2006 Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award.
Available from Amazon.com
Poetry (haiku)
Volumes 1 and 2 of my self-published haiku-photo books are available for purchase by clicking here.
Publications as a child
Just an Inkling: The Boulder Valley School District Literary Magazine, May 1998, "Spring Evening."
The Mountain Ear, March 26, 1998, "A Lovely, Crisp Spring Evening Comes Home."
Images of Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Fall 1995, "Thirty Three Bridges to Nederland."
High Country Journal, June 1995, "The Man in Black."
The Mountain Ear, December 15, 1994, Letter to the Editor, "Memorial Touches All Who Pass."
Images of Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Fall 1993, "The Turn of the Century."
The Mountain Ear, June 17, 1993, Citizen's Column, "Sixth Grade Student Leaves Protective Shell."
Images of Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Fall 1992, "1881."
Defunct Blogs
(will these someday see a revival? Perhaps…)
Freedom from Want (some want to stop aching for food everyday, some want to stop aching from all their food everyday—we all want freedom from want)
The At-Risk Teacher (the ills of public education through the eyes of a (drop-out) teacher)