One day when I was a young girl, I went for a walk on the beach in my Jersey shore hometown. I picked up a shell and held it to my ear. Instead of the ocean, I heard a deep voice proclaim, "You should write a book someday." I raced home, grabbed a #2 pencil and some of that weird fuzzy paper we used in elementary school and scribbled my first story. The plot had something to do with a family of chickens visiting the city, hardly Pulitzer-worthy, but it inspired me to give up my previous career aspiration of riding the High-Diving horse on Steel Pier in Atlantic City.

I have always loved coming up with stories to entertain myself and my friends -- most of which put us all in the middle of our favorite books, television shows and movies. I wrote for the sheer fun of exploring the outer limits of my imagination, playing with the endless magic of words, and avoiding mathematics homework whenever possible.  Eventually, I discovered that people would pay me to write! My very first work-for-hire was a campaign of ten-second radio ads for a boardwalk candy store. "For the lightest taste delight, try a piece of seafoam fudge!" Over the years, I made a fairly decent living writing everything from radio and print copy to press releases to magazine and newspaper articles. Still, somewhere always in my mind I heard that echo repeat, "You should write a book someday."

While pursuing my English degree in the 1970s, I fell in love with romance novels. I always knew that my book would be a romance. There were several starts and stops along my life's journey, but no matter what else happened, I never got away from that voice telling me, "someday".  Eventually, I had a sparkling aha moment that the book wasn't going to suddenly spring forth from my brain. I also knew darn well that I didn't want to reach the end of my life, many decades in the future, look back and say, "I could have written a book."

Over the next several years, I struggled, I sweat, I learned and I honed my craft.  After some failed attempts and several learning experiences, I wrote a book that combines my love of romance novels and my love of dolphins. That book was All Keyed Up, my debut release, originally published by Medallion Press. My second book, Key of Sea, returned readers to the fabulous Florida Keys.  I’m thrilled to now make both of my books available for e-readers, as well as in print.

I’m hard at work on more stories, inspired by the beauty, fun, and interesting characters I encounter here at home in the Florida Keys.  I look forward to sharing them with all of you.