I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, where my parents met during graduate school. I grew up on the East Coast, where I attended Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Illinois. In 2007, my family and I moved to the Pacific Northwest where we now live with our mischievous cat.

Writing has always been a passion. I've been writing stories for years and publishing my writing has been one of my greatest dreams. I was most influenced to write by my mother, but both my parents are excellent writers.

I love writing stories for children. Before You Were Here, Mi Amor (Viking, 2009) was inspired by the birth of my sister's first children. The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred (Charlesbridge, February 1, 2011) popped into my head while I was cooking. I laughed, envisioning a cow contributing her milk and a hen offering her eggs. My plot began evolving and I started writing. My rhyming alphabet story, ALPHABET TRUCKS (Charlesbridge, Fall 2013) is my first all English book. Ironically, two years before writing ALPHABET TRUCKS, my children's agent told me she had a dream I had written a book about trucks! I laughed at the time. Surprisingly, inspiration came in 2009 after attending a writing conference.