I did not set out to become a storyteller and writer, but somewhere between the role of social worker and assistant dean of students I realized I was called to do something else. I believe we all have powerful stories worthy of sharing out-loud and on-purpose. And because of this I love to hear and tell the stories that matter – the ones that are lingering days later in your mind, heart, and soul, turning one right-side-up, again. I’ve been writing and telling stories since 1987. My training in social work and theater, teaching and directing teens and young adults, has equipped me to see and hear differently as a writer and a teller. My first story was written in 1981 – The King Who Waits – while working as an assistant dean of students at a small Christian college, and it remains my most requested story in written and recorded form. I started recording stories in 1989, creating written story collections in 1998, and professionally producing plays in 2000. Actually, my first work as a playwright began in 1974 with my H.S. senior theater arts project –the writing of the play Broadarella. It was a BIG hit as a version of Cinderella ala roller derby, with all the actors performing on skates (our theater had wooden staging). My drama teacher, Mrs. Cooney, said, ‘It’s okay to perform on skates… go ahead and write it!’

It is my heart’s desire to speak to all the ears, all the ages as a teller and writer. And my favorite audience is children through senior adults, all stuffed into one room, and listening. There is nothing more wonderful than the concerned look on a child’s face and the senior adult wiping away the tear away because of a touching story line in The Motherless Child,… or everyone throwing their heads back in a guffaw of laughter over a universal line from the folktale character called Lazy Jack who says, repeatedly, “I will remember that next time, dear Mother, I will.” Why right side-up stories for upside-down people? It began with a book in college by Donald B. Kraybill – The Upside-Down Kingdom published in 1978. It teaches/speaks through the four gospels and Jesus’s story and His followers’ story… and how the whole of the world turns the right way when we live, pursue, and follow Jesus. Quoting Kraybill, “These are the people who turn the world upside – down because they know there is another King named Jesus. These children of the Most High welcome the reign of God each day with the words, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is on heaven.” I will never tire of helping others turn right-side-up… by telling the STORIES that matter.