The most enchanting place to spend the holidays.
The last several years, I’ve released a Christmas book that centers around Ruby’s Place, a classy supper club in a small Missouri town where it’s long been rumored the “spirits” are not confined to the liquors behind the bar. In fact, some say, at Ruby’s Place, on Christmas Eve, it’s possible to reconnect with a long-lost loved one just one more time. Tell them everything you didn’t get a chance to let them know while they were still alive. Maybe I love you or I’m sorry.
Turns out, there was magic inside the building that would house Ruby’s Place, even decades before Ruby opened her namesake supper club.
A Troublesome Heart goes all the way back to the days when the building housed a speakeasy. When the town’s biggest recluse—the meanest old lady in all of Sullivan, Missouri—put the wheels in motion…
There’s more to the story.
I’m a storyteller. Always have been, ever since I was a little girl. I’d sit at my child-sized rolltop desk, writing stories and adding crayon illustrations. Or I’d tell them out loud, off the top of my head, into a tape recorder. I’d even make my brother play out some of the parts, giving him dialogue to repeat!
Since the crayon and cassette tape days, I’ve gone on to publish with the Big 5 and smaller houses, as well as independently through my own imprint. I’ve received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, won silver and gold medals in Foreword INDIES Book of the Year and the IPPY Awards, respectively, been featured on Booklist’s Best First Novels for Youth and School Library Journal’s What’s Hot in YA, and chosen as a PW Pick of the Week. I’ve also made the Master Lists for several children’s book awards, including the Missouri Mark Twain Award.
But after all that writing and publishing, that artist in me—the one who used to illustrate all my stories—was feeling pretty ignored. As was the oral storyteller. Not to mention the teacher who once stood in front of collegiate writing courses.
That’s all going to be making its way here to the site: pages dedicated to my illustrative and commercial artwork. To courses for writers. To audio works.
It’s all a story in progress…
It’s My Story & I’m Stickin’ With It
The writing life isn’t easy, but it in no way has to be as hard as we often make it. I’m the first to agree that there are no hard and fast rules in writing. But too often, that leads writers to think they can find no rules for themselves. Which, in turn, only leads to grappling around in the dark every single time the writer sits down to draft the next novel.
I’ve spent more than twenty years as a full-time author (a published novelist since ‘10), and I’ve learned that the messy, elusive process of writing a book can absolutely be streamlined. As writers, we can also equip ourselves with a step-by-step guide for revision, so that we never have to dread the editorial letter.
My Substack (It’s My Story & I’m Stickin’ With It) offers tips, tricks, and insights into various approaches to writing—and by writing, I mean drafting, outlining, brainstorming, revising, etc.—that work for me and (now that I’ve opened my door as an editor) my own clients. Those approaches will help other authors find their own paths as well.
When a writer stops fighting the process, it opens them up to experience more creative play.
And there’s no better feeling than that—than creative play. If you’re struggling to find it again, “creative play” can sound like the loftiest of goals. But we’re writers—we specialize in lofty goals.
Let’s play.
InkBerry Greeting Cards
When I decided to get back into my art, the first products I offered were greeting cards. I started with cards because they're almost like mini-books, in a way—books that I give a cover to, and you write the content of yourself. It’s been so incredibly lovely to be a small part of so many special occasions, friendships, and love stories.
Digital invitations and personalized physical cards coming soon.
New 2024 Christmas Cards
I Offer Direct Sales
Interested in buying my books directly from me, but aren’t quite sure how it works?
Stories for All Ages
I’ve written for readers of all ages. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed releasing works for young readers—visiting them in classrooms and meeting them in virtual discussion groups. My MG novel The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky, a Finalist or Master List nominee for readers’ choice awards in Missouri, Illinois, South Carolina, Alabama, and Oklahoma, got an updated re-release in ‘23 and is available in ebook, hardback, and paperback forms.
My story “Spooklight” represented Missouri in the Haunted States of America, a spooky anthology for young readers, published in conjunction with SCBWI and Henry Holt.
