I grew up in Stony Brook, Long Island, New York, the youngest of three children, all of whom eventually became writers and publishing professionals. Ours was a household of readers. My mother’s favorite professor at Cornell had been Vladimir Nabokov, whose classes inspired her lifelong passion for literature. Our family’s enthusiasm for history, art, and archaeology also stemmed from my mother.
Providing a dynamic counterpart to my mother’s interests, my father started a travel agency, which afforded us the opportunity to visit exotic places such as Delphi, Pompeii, and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. We explored the Roman catacombs, French cathedrals, and the castles in the Loire Valley. I recall Assisi in the snow at Christmastime, and Stonehenge in the pouring rain.
With such an upbringing, it is not surprising that I studied literature and art history (at Smith College), and worked in the book publishing industry in New York City for nearly a decade. Subsequently, I married, moved to Seattle, had two children, and balanced home responsibilities with freelance writing.
I’ve been known primarily as an author of fiction and nonfiction for young adults and older children, and my nine books have garnered accolades including a Golden Kite Honor Book, a Booklist Editors’ Choice Book, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a James Madison Award Honor Book, A CBC/NSTA Notable Trade Book, two Washington State Book Award Finalists, and two “Books for the Teen Age” recommended by the New York Public Library.
Ancient Egypt always fascinated me. I remember touring the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979. Looking back now, nearly a half-century from the moment I first gazed at Tut’s dazzling gold death mask, it follows that I’d one day write a novel about the Tut excavation. I realized a lifelong dream when I traveled to Egypt in 2010 with my sister and her family. The long wait was worth it to experience the heat of the desert, the smell of cumin in the markets, the deep orange of the sunsets, and the startling grandeur of the ancient monuments.
I love my King Tut book, To Chase the Glowing Hours: A Novel of Highclere and Egypt, more than any project I’ve ever written. And certainly, it has had the longest trajectory to publication of any of my projects. I’m very excited to publish my first historical novel for adults with Regal House!
