My first book, Europe with Two Kids and a Van was published in 1973. Inspired by my travels with my husband and two young children in a Volkwagon Bus all around Europe before returning to Ferndale, California, where I started a Jewelry design and retail business. In 1977 we moved to Oregon and opened my second custom jewelry store. After selling my business in1988, I went on to be a painter and sculptor, exhibiting and teaching art. In 2006, my husband and I traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and eventually bought a house there. While living there we started a non-profit (NGO), Latin American Relief Fund to support a migrant shelter, Albergue ABBA for migrants and refugees. see: latinamericanrelieffund.org. I continued to enjoy writing short stories and some poetry, but it was only after a few years of taking writing workshops both at the annual San Miguel Writers Conference and in Portland that I had the courage to write my first novel, Under the Salvadoran Sun, published in 2014. In 2022 I wrote and published my second novel, Dark Secrets and in 2023 the second edition of my travvel Memoir and Guide came out as well as a small companion booklet/journal for travelers.
