My work

Updated 5/22/08:

I call myself a "writer". What does that mean?

Fiction Projects I've written:
• Prairie Fire, a completed 100,000 word time-travel romance
• Witch's Fire, continuing the universe created in Prairie Fire, currently in draft stages
• The Viking's Tale, an erotic short story, currently in draft stages

Contest Placements for Prairie Fire:
• Finalist, 2005 First Kiss Contest (a best first-kiss scene contest)
• Second Place, Historical Category, 2004 Stepping Stone Contest (a Golden Heart-style contest)
• First Place, 2003 Picture This Contest (a best-scene contest)
• Third Place, 2001 Heart of the West Contest (a first-chapter contest)
• Third Place, 2001 Southern Heat Contest (a first-chapter contest)
~Read judges' comments from some of these contests~

Member of Romance Writers of America
• Achieved RWA Pro status in 2003
• Attended national and regional conferences
• Member of Windy City Romance Writers
• Previous member of Hearts Through History Romance Writers, The Beau Monde, San Francisco Area Romance Writers, Silicon Valley Romance Writers, and the Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Special Interest Chapter of RWA
• Former editor of the Windy City newsletter, Blowing Kisses (winner of RWA’s Chapter Newsletter Contest in 1999 and 2000)
• Paranormal category coordinator for the Windy City Four Seasons Awards, 2005 and 2006

Degree in journalism from Drake University, Des Moines

Worked 8 years at a Chicago-area newspaper
• 3 years as a reporter producing 4-6 stories a week for publication
• 3 years as a copy editor/copy desk chief
• 2 years as a features editor generating ideas and editing stories

Currently work as a technical writer at a Chicago-area software firm
• Wrote two user's manuals
• Wrote a 75-page training manual
• Wrote many test plans and design-specification documents


Prairie Fire – a time-travel romance
100,000 words

A modern-day newswoman and an 1830s frontiersman are separated by more than 170 years, yet both their lives have been singed by tragedy.

NATASHA STEWART is an identical twin, the daughter of an identical twin, who grew up in a family attuned to the magic in the sky, earth and water around them. But it’s fire that’s been deadly in Natasha’s experience, killing her twin when they were eight years old, and leaving her reluctant to make close attachments and with a severe distrust for men who promise too much.

JAMES WAVERLY understood death from an early age also, when his mother was killed in an Indian battle and he was adopted for a short time into a Potawatomi family. A loner who takes honor and responsibility to heart, he’s straddled two cultures, never quite at home in either and never understanding the ties that held him to the prairies near Chicago. The untimely death of his wife reinforced Waverly’s belief that ladies are too fragile for life on the frontier.

When a prairie fire magically creates a doorway that sends Natasha though time and into Waverly’s arms, the sparks threaten to burn more than dry brush. As Natasha searches for a way home and Waverly tries to protect this lady who refuses to be protected, they discover their lives are more connected than either could have believed, and Natasha’s future hinges on this frontiersman with an unexpected link to her past.

Prairie Fire – a beacon through time, igniting new passion, exposing old truths.