I was born a missionary kid in China, and when I was five, we moved to an isolated village in Inner Mongolia. Books became my best friends, and I loved Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. I loved to write poems and little stories, and created a world of imaginary friends.

When we came to the US, culture shock was awful, and I tried to forget China and become as American as possible. I discovered the piano, and life became divided between books and music. While attending Pacific Bible Institute, I met the man of my dreams. We married and raised three daughters and I taught piano. My greatest joy was to train young church musicians, but I also wrote poems and plays to be performed at church and at my recitals.

Our area is called the Fruit Basket of the Nation, and during summers piano lessons stopped and everyone worked in the fruit business. During that time, I taught preschool to the children of migrant workers. When I needed a song or story for a project, I wrote one.

After a visit back to China in 1981, I was inspired to write a novel of my experiences. I attended writer's conferences, joined the Romance Writers of America, attended the Writer's Digest camp, and studied created writing at a local college and for many years with a critique group led by a published author. I thought I would surely write the Great American Novel, but my first efforts were rejected by publishers. The writing wasn't spicy enough for the secular market but didn't have a strong enough message for the Christian publishers.

Then I gave my writing over to the Lord and He showed me what I needed to do, and guided me as I stubbornly revised and polished until my work was acceptable.

Finally magazines published several of my short stories, and in 2004 my first novel was published by Kregel Publications, who also published my second, the China story, in 2006. I now feel
that God has shown me my purpose in life and I praise Him for using my wild imagination and showing me how to use it for His glory.