I’ve been working on a few different projects: several picture books and a middle-grade nonfiction proposal. I expect I’ll be dusting off my novel manuscript this year, too. I’m looking forward to a bunch of upcoming speaking opportunities and a new book coming in May 2027: Newton’s Paws of Motion!

I’ve also been keeping busy with climate advocacy volunteering—including coordinating a recent trip to Olympia for 15 students and 13 adult chaperones, where the students lobbied 10 of our state legislators for four different climate-friendly policies. It was a successful trip, and it felt good to make a difference—for the climate and for the kids.

In personal news, my oldest kiddo just finished their Master’s degree in bioinformatics and bought a house in Denmark, so I’m looking forward to visiting them there again this year, along with some other fun trips to places I’ve never been before!

I hope you and yours are safe and well. 💜

The whole series, now in board book!

You Are a Robin! and You Are a Garter Snake! both recently released in board book format, so now your littlest readers can own the whole set. All the books in the Meet Your World series use movement and pretend play to introduce young readers to animals that most likely live in their neighborhoods… AND to the joy of reading!

Buy now

2025 in review:

I always like to sit down and reflect on the past year as we move into a new one. Here are some of the highlights:

• I got back on my feet after breaking and badly spraining my ankle at the end of 2024.
• I got to visit my family in Wisconsin and later in Michigan.
• I led the event planning for and moderated a panel at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Greater Pacific Northwest regional conference.
• I sold a manuscript (Newton’s Paws of Motion, coming in May 2027 from Sourcebooks Xpress)!
• I participated monthly in a citizen science program to monitor amphibian populations in a nearby park.
• I bought a new car (an all-electric Honda Prologue).
• I got to spend time with my oldest kiddo when they came back to the U.S. to attend a friend’s wedding on Orcas Island.
• I lobbied for climate policies in person in Washington, D.C., and virtually.
• I researched and made progress on a middle-grade nonfiction proposal, but have since shelved it (at least for the time being). 
• I finished one nonfiction picture book poetry manuscript and started another one (alas, poetry picture books are a tough sell these days!).
• I researched and started drafting another nonfiction picture book (NOT poetry).
• I revised an old nonfiction picture book (but it still needs more work).
• I wrote an article for the SCBWI’s Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.
• I got a letter to the editor published in the Seattle Times.
• I presented at five school visits, one library event, five Meet Your World story walks, the Washington Library Association conference, Kindling Words West, an adult writing for children course, and the Poulsbo Book Festival.
• I planted dozens of trees and removed invasive plants in our local parks.
• I saw a ton of spectacular plays and musicals.
• I got to spend lots of quality time with family, friends, and pets. 

Favorite reads of 2025:

I enjoyed a lot of great books last year, so I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you. In no particular order, here they are:

Picture book fiction:

• Grace Builds an Almost Perfect Dog by Curtis Manley and Tracy Subisak
• This Wolf Was Different by Katie Slivensky and Hannah Salyer
• Blue by Suzanne Kaufman
• There’s Something Odd About the Babysitter by Elayne Crain and John Ledda
• The Riding Lesson by Jennifer K. Mann

Picture book nonfiction:

• From BAM! to BURP!: A Carbon Atom’s Never-Ending Journey Through Space and Time and YOU by Melissa Stewart and Marta Alvarez Miguens
• On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas by Elizabeth Shreeve and Ray Troll
• Flurry, Float, and Fly!: The Story of a Snowstorm by Laura Purdie Salas and Chiara Fedele
• Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber by Sarah Albee
• Pedal Pusher: How One Woman’s Bicycle Adventure Helped Change the World by Mary Boone and Lisa Anchin
• Almost Underwear by Jonathan Roth

Middle grade fiction:

• The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls by J. Anderson Coats
• Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth Bunce
• Annie California by Margaret Kellerman

Middle grade nonfiction:

• Eating to Save the Planet: How Veganism Helps Fight Climate Change by Anne Broyles

Adult fiction:

• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
• Weyward by Emilia Hart
• The Sirens by Emilia Hart
• The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
• The Story Collector by Evie Woods
• The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
• Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree

Adult nonfiction:

• Blueprint for a Revolution by Srdja Popovic
• Wildly Inspired by Joni Sensel
• Bigger by Ren Cedar Fuller

Upcoming events:

• Feb 4: Author visit at St. Louise Elementary
• Feb 10: Literacy night at Apollo Elementary
• Mar 1: Attendee at nErDcamp Bellingham
• Mar 2: Author visit at Ben Franklin Elementary
• Mar 17: Keynote speaker at Tacoma Public Schools Highly Capable seminar
• Mar 31-Apr 8: Vacation! 
• May 2: Breakout speaker at SCBWI-WWA conference
• May 11–18: Attendee at Kindling Words West on Whidbey Island
• Jul 14–15: Library presentations at Sequim, Forks, and Port Angeles

I’d love to hear from you! Please drop me a line anytime. And thanks for reading!

• 24 keynotes, assemblies, presentations, or workshops for young people,
• 17 Skype visits,
• 7 presentations for adults,
• 6 bookstore appearances,
• 2 roundtable critique sessions,
• 1 radio interview, and
• an 8‑week improv class.

The success I feel here isn’t so much from the quantity, but from the quality. First, it’s gotten MUCH easier for me. I can do these talks in stride now and don’t stress out for a whole day prior and then need a whole day after to decompress. That’s a big win! Also, the improv class was oddly terrifying to think about, but so much fun and such a great experience in practice. So, I’m really glad that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone.
I also had some success with major writing goals and projects:

• TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: IT’S ALIVE! was released in June, and I put a lot of time put into promotion, including developing promotional materials like curriculum guides and swag, and creating new presentations around it.
• We’re just now putting the final touches on the second book in the series, TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES, which we researched, drafted, revised, copyedited, and sourced photos for all in the past year. This one is so good, I can’t wait to see it out in the world next June!
• We have the outline for the third TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE book just about wrapped up, too, so 2018 will see a lot of work (and fun!) on that front.
• I wrote a brand-new picture book from scratch, revised it, and it went out on submission! I’m hopeful this one will find a home in 2018.
• I revised my MG nonfiction project and sent it back out on submission. Alas, it looks like this one will need yet another fresh approach, which is also on the schedule for 2018. I’m mulling over a couple of ideas about how to proceed.
• I worked on revising two other picture books, one fiction and one nonfiction, but neither one is quite ready yet. More work to come on both of those in the year ahead, and hopefully they’ll be ready to send out soon.
• I started researching a new picture book biography. I’m really excited about this one, and the research so far has only fueled my interest further. I hope I can complete a first draft in the coming year.
• I had a new idea for another nonfiction picture book and have started researching that one as well. This one is still in the idea phase and will take some noodling to get just the right approach, so for now I’ll keep researching and thinking and see what happens.

As you can see from the above, I’ll have my work cut out for me in 2018 with one new book to promote, one under contract to write, (at least) two picture books to finish revising, the MG nonfiction to re-envision, and the two new picture books to research and draft. Phew — that’s a lot of big goals. Wish me luck! =D

Every moment we share books, music, conversation, or meals with people who might not be completely like us, is one moment more that we benefit and grow as human beings, that we recognize the beauty, fluidity, and worth of our differences. And the more we do this as adults, the more our children recognize how to interact, how to have empathy. We all have moments when we are less than kind, less than tolerant, less than the people we strive to be. With exposure, contact, and education, I hope my children grow up to have fewer of them. Maybe they’ll walk through that door, and maybe they’ll go to that party.

The article reminded me of a woman I was friends with in college. I met her when I was working as an assistant in the computer lab. She often needed help. She was in a motorized wheelchair. She was elderly. She had cerebral palsy. She could barely talk. She made the letters on the screen so big she could only read a few words at a time. She would type her papers one difficult keystroke at a time, jabbing at the keyboard with a fat pencil. She often missed and had to go back and try again, sometimes shrieking in anger. It was painstaking to watch, and yet I admired her determination. Were any of the rest of us taking our education that seriously? Would any of the rest of us have willingly put ourselves through that frustration and embarrassment every single evening and weekend?
Over time, I got to know her better. I started being able to decipher her slurred speech and have meaningful conversations with her. Despite the communication barriers and the generation gap, we became friends. Sometimes when she saw me outside of the lab she would get so excited that she would smile and laugh, which often resulted in drool and spitting. People around us would recoil in disgust. I had too, initially, but what’s a little spit among friends? When I invited my boyfriend, who is now my husband, to visit me at college, we made plans to go out to dinner with her. She knew how I felt about him and was joyous at meeting him, so pizza and drool were flying everywhere, often spraying us and our plates. I was worried that he’d be upset with me for putting him through this, but the entire meal he treated her with respect and interest. He waited for me to translate her speech so he could converse with her. Afterward, he said something to the effect of, “What an interesting, amazing woman. I can see why you like her.” I fell in love with him all over again because of that interaction.
My life has been forever enriched by knowing her and others like her. So, I urge you to read Suzanne’s whole article, here. I urge you to write, recommend, and teach books that will help children choose kindness and inclusivity and to value all kinds of people of all abilities, races, religions, orientations, identities, etc. And I urge you to take a risk, seek connection over comfort, and make sure you go to that party.
Here are some possible books to start with:

Upstanders is an original collection of short stories, films and podcasts sharing the experiences of Upstanders – ordinary people doing extraordinary things to create positive change in their communities. Produced by Howard Schultz and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Upstanders series helps inspire us to be better citizens.

Apparently, they–like so many of us–were feeling a bit disheartened by our current political climate. Their press release says,

In contrast to the divisiveness and cynicism currently fueling our national discourse, Starbucks today debuted “Upstanders,” its first original content series, which aims to inspire Americans to engage in acts of compassion, citizenship and civility. “Upstanders” features ten stories, each told in written, video and podcast form, about ordinary people doing extraordinary things to create positive change in their communities.…
“We’ve asked ourselves what is the role and responsibility of a public company and, as citizens, how we can catalyze hope in a time when we need more optimism, empathy, compassion and leadership,” said Schultz.  “The upstanders featured in this series are inspiring individuals whose actions are emblematic of the American spirit and what is missing from so much of today’s national dialogue. We have always been storytellers at heart, and more of these stories need to be heard. We are using our scale to share them as broadly as possible.”

I love seeing these kinds of examples of how everyone can choose to Be a Changemaker, so the Upstanders podcast is now added to my subscription list! Here’s a trailer to give you an idea what it’s all about:

• 1 high school presentation,
• 13 middle school presentations,
• 4 elementary school presentations,
• 6 Skype visits (including one to Hawaii, one to Brazil, and one more to go!),
• 3 radio interviews,
• 2 preschool storytimes,
• 2 teen library events,
• 1 adult library event,
• 2 Girl Scout workshops,
• 3 bookstore signing events,
• 1 book launch party,
• 1 blog tour,
• 1 book trailer,
• 1 storytime activity kit,
• the Texas Book Festival in Austin,
• the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Columbus,
• the Pacific Northwest Library Association conference (PNLA) in Portland,
• the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) conference in St. Louis,
• one research trip to St. Louis,
• Indies First! on Small Business Saturday at Secret Garden Books,
• 1 guest lecture at the University of Washington,
• 2 appearances at a children’s museum,
• 2 summer camp visits,
• 2 Twitter chats (including one for WWE moms!),
• 2 recordings for TeachingBooks.net,
• 1 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award presentation at SCBWI-WWA’s Inside Story event,
• 1 middle-grade book written and submitted,
• 3 picture books revised (but not yet finished),
• 1 YA project edited and revised (still in progress),
• preliminary research for 2 new book projects,
• at least 2 major website overhauls (one here and one for Online Author Visits),
• volunteering for We Need Diverse Books,
• volunteering for SCBWI Western Washington, and
• 19 blog posts.

Not too shabby! It’s so easy in this business to feel like I never get anything done. I have a stack of in-progress manuscripts that I desperately want to perfect so they can go out and try to find their publishing homes, and every day that they don’t quite get there (or worse, don’t make any progress at all!) feels like a big fat failure. Listing out all of the things that I have done makes me feel a little bit better. I haven’t just been spinning my wheels, after all! I didn’t get to finish everything I had hoped to by now, but I did check off some big goals and also did a bunch of things I hadn’t expected or planned on. And, many of the things listed were firsts for me and/or major highlights, so there’s a lot of personal growth hidden in that list as well as some major accomplishments to be proud of. So, all in all, not bad!
Still, there’s so much more I want to do! My goals for the rest of the year include:

• finishing up revisions for the first book in the Two Truths and a Lie series: It’s Alive!,
• completing the photo research for It’s Alive!,
• attending the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando to accept the Schneider Family Award,
• revising my nonfiction picture book until it’s ready for submission,
• revising one of my fiction picture books until it’s ready for submission,
• revising the middle-grade nonfiction proposal until it’s ready for submission,
• revising the YA project until it’s ready for submission,
• finalizing the outline for Two Truths and a Lie, Book #2, and beginning the writing,
• and writing more blog posts.

There are several other manuscripts I hope to finish revising, as well as a handful of new ideas I’m really excited about researching further and beginning to write, but those will all just have to wait until I complete the above. Revision is one of those things that’s difficult to predict how long it will take, so I’m not sure if this list is even anywhere close to doable. I’ll check back in January to let you know how I’ve done! 🙂