I grew up in Botetourt County, near Roanoke, Virginia. As a child I was extremely interested in sports, and still am. I played basketball for about five years until I was diagnosed with scoliosis and made to wear a back brace 23 hours a day, seven days a week. Just like Anna Beth in Plastic Back, I quit basketball and took up piano at the time of my scoliosis diagnosis. In third grade, the same year I started basketball, I remember developing an interest in writing. I'll never forget a project assigned around Valentine's Day to write a children's book about the holiday. It was then that I first imagined myself one day writing a children's novel.

 

 

Though I graduated high school planning to be a high school Math teacher, I ended up receiving a BA in History and American Studies and a Master's of Teaching in Elementary Education, both from the University of Virginia. While finishing my Master's, I wrote Plastic Back about my experiences as a child growing up with scoliosis. While the majority of the novel is accurate of my life, names have been changed and a few events tweaked for literary purposes and therefore, it's listed as fiction.

 

I now reside in Texas, where I am a fourth grader teacher.