About Me

I was born in Orange County, California. My mother is a hardworking parochial school teacher and my father is a brilliant pianist and church organist. I have two younger sisters who are both extremely talented. The time my parents spent reading to me and the time my sisters spent playing pretend with me were probably the most significant influences in my development as a writer.

My school librarian was one of the first people to encourage my early writing efforts. She put together a list of all the children's book publishers and told me to start sending stuff out. I always had a lot of support and encouragement from my teachers in school--especially my English/Language Arts teachers. I went to Catholic school from kindergarten through 12th grade. In high school I participated in band, choir, theater, and numerous other clubs, and graduated Salutatorian of my senior class. I was also a Girl Scout for thirteen years and got my Gold Award.

I went to UCLA and majored in American Literature. I studied creative writing under Harryette Mullen and David Wong Louie. I graduated in three years. After this I worked as a retail clerk, a substitute teacher, a youth choir director, and an administrative assistant.

I met my husband, John, in 2007. He was a law enforcement officer and a John Lennon impersonator in a Beatles tribute band. He is a very talented performer, and you can see his work on the webpage I created for the band: http://www.wearethewalrus.net.

Shortly after we got engaged I decided to pursue librarianship as my career. I applied to SJSU's School of Library and Information Science in 2007, and started classes in spring of 2008. Since it was an online program, I could study while I continued to work full time. Eventually I was able to volunteer and work "on call" at some public libraries, and got a part time job as a librarian assistant at Yorba Linda Public Library. I worked for three years on the adult and children's reference desks, helping patrons of all ages do research for a variety of projects. I did the fundraising for the annual teen summer reading program, and assisted in planning and presenting adult programs as well.

In November 2010 I was awarded the California Library Association's Begun Scholarship, which is given to a library student committed to working with youth. I was also given the OCLA scholarship and a general scholarship from my university.

In August 2011 I began working an additional part-time job as an educational media assistant at a public school. There I put on preschool storytimes, including a weekly Bilingual storytime program, in addition to helping kids from grades K-6th to select books and check them out. I also worked on updating the library's collection and catalog to provide greater support for the Accelerated Reader program.

In May 2012, I will be starting my first professional Librarian position for the City of Pasadena. I am so excited to be starting my career in a branch of their large and diverse library system. Pasadena has a reputation for being on the cutting edge of public library programming and services, and I am extremely lucky to be able to work with such creative and forward-thinking people!

I have one daughter, born in March 2010. She is a beautiful, happy girl who loves to laugh, run, play, read books, watch TV, and play with my iPad. She is learning many words. I hope that I can make her proud someday. I want her to learn from me to be self-fulfilled and to rely on her own inner whisperings. I want her to know she can be anything she dreams, and I hope I can show her this by example.