When I was three I went on vacation to Donegal, Ireland where I rode a pony for the first time. Ask me anything about that experience, I remember every detail and have been a horse-girl ever since.
At age nine, I read Black Beauty. When I closed the book I knew I would become an author, and I would write books for kids. It took me longer than I planned, but here I am! I still have my worn copy of that book.
I was twenty-four years old when my first son, Parker, was born. My second son, James, was born when I was twenty-nine. Being a mother is the best and most important job I have ever had. Writing books for children is a close second.
In 2009 my family experienced a life-altering event when one of my son’s had a critical illness that required life support. After he was out of the hospital six months later, I was so grateful for his life that I started the Literacy for Hope Project which is dedicated to getting books into the hands of homeless people.
Even though people told me I was crazy, I was fifty-five years young when the mountains in western Wyoming called to me. I moved across the country by myself to live near them. It was only after I moved that I realized this was truly home and I probably should have been living near these mountains my whole life.
I signed my first publishing contract with HarperCollins when I was fifty-six years old. My first book, Swing Sideways, was published two years later at the ripe age of fifty-eight. So don’t ever let anyone say it is too late to do what you always dreamed of doing. It just isn’t true.
