I’m the Grand Prize-winning author of Alice Anyway, Ivaleena, and A Feedsack Dress for Sadie—emotionally resonant Appalachian novels exploring resilience, self-discovery, and belonging. My stories are written to be lived in, drawing readers into immersive worlds where the pages turn quickly, even as the ending is never quite desired.

My debut novel, Alice Anyway, was named the First Place Grand Prize Winner for Fiction in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, where it also won First Novel (70,000–90,000 words) and was named a finalist in Female Empowerment. The novel became a #1 Amazon Bestseller in Women’s Historical Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction, and Women’s Literary Fiction. Readers have called my work “a gifted writer with an insight that is seldom expressed so eloquently,” and have said the writing made them reread whole paragraphs in appreciation.

In Ivaleena, set against the vivid backdrop of a traveling carnival, illusion and identity intertwine as a young woman searches for who she is beneath the performance. In A Feedsack Dress for Sadie, I turn to a more unflinching story of survival, memory, and the quiet strength required to endure what cannot be spoken.

Before writing fiction, I spent years on Wall Street and later founded Special “Finds…” Unique Property Marketing, where I learned how deeply story and place shape the way we see the world.

I now live on the North Carolina coast with my husband, Jim, where I write overlooking a wide river and the quiet persistence of wild things.

I leave my stories in your hands and am grateful for the readers who spend time with them, who carry them forward, and who share their thoughts along the way.