I didn’t begin writing novels until my middle years, and I’ve been writing up a storm since then. Sure, I was one of those youngsters who always wanted to be a writer, but I was reluctant to take the leap. My adventures and intrigues were confined to the books I read—Mark Twain, Daphne DuMaurier, and anything about the early North Pole expeditions. After working a few decades as a Professor of Psychology, I decided the time was right to launch my writing career. In the course of genealogy research, I had uncovered a mystery: My Swiss-Italian grandfather immigrated to New York City in the 1890s but no one in the family knew about his life there. So I made up a story and filled it with corruption, murder, and suspense (though maybe not enough since it still sits lonely on the shelf). But I loved writing it, and I decided historical fiction was the genre for me.
I wrote a few more novels, pitching and querying agents along the way without much luck. Then I stumbled on the story of May Dugas, a conwoman who the Pinkerton detectives chased all over the globe. I thought her story would make a rip-roaring historical novel. Several agents agreed, and I signed with an agent at the Gernert Company in New York. She sold the novel to Doubleday, and it was published in 2013. Best-selling author Daisy Goodwin called Parlor Games “a wildly entertaining and constantly surprising ride,” and I’m quite proud of it.
Since then, I have published three other novels, all with Sunbury Press. Eden Waits (2019) is based on the true story of a utopian community founded in Michigan in the 1890s. The adventures of child prodigy author Barbara Follett are the subject of The Point of Vanishing (2021). In 2022, The Model Spy was released, which recounts the tale of the brave and beautiful Toto Koopman, a model for Coco Chanel and others and a spy for the Italian Resistance and Allies during World War II. In 2026, Regal House will publish my novel Margery and Me, and I’m thrilled to be joining the Regal family.
So my hard work and perseverance have paid off. Now I’m an award-winning novelist specializing in historical fiction based on actual people. My fiction has won several accolades, including the Willamette Writers Award, an Oregon Writers Colony Award, the Historical Novel Society Review Editors’ Choice, La Belle Lettre Award, the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) Notable Books Award, and a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant. I have served on the Board of the Historical Novel Society North America Conference since 2015.
I love unearthing the stories of people overlooked by history and bringing them back to life—portraying their challenges and foibles and rekindling their emotional world. I pride myself on carefully researching the period, place, and people and providing readers with an immersive experience. I’m an avid opera fan and enjoy gardening, art films, and, of course, great fiction. I live in Portland, Oregon.
