Influences: I grew up hearing crickets chirp outside my door, in a place where the water tasted sweet and I named crawdads in the creek next to my house. In the summer, you could taste the smell of sweet onions and earth. Walla Walla is rich in history and was a stopping point on the Lewis & Clark trail. Wheat fields, orchards and vineyards abound. We have been given the title "Little Napa Valley". I am the second daughter and fourth child in a family of eight children. The greatest influence I can attribute to my writing would be my parents, both possessing intelligence, wit, courage and a romantic spirit. My grandparents, both maternal and paternal, were farmers who instilled in me a love and respect for the earth...

Several of my poems have been accepted for publication in Art With Words Poetry Quarterly... Published in the Katrina Journal, Washing The Color of Water Golden by Sun Rising Press... Published in the chapbook, A Place of Amazing Grace, dedicated to the miners of West Virginia, by Art With Words Publications... Soon to published in The Blueprint: Assemblage of The Fifth Element, an online journal