When the holidays arrive, I tend to forget about anything but baking cookies and making fun holiday edibles. This year is no different. I started first with my favorite, sugar cookies. Last year, while visiting an Amish store, I ran across some nice cookie cutters that I thought would be a great addition to my collection, which consisted of some very small cookie cutters and some giant cookie cutters. The giant cookie cutters I used when I was a library supervisor of college work-study students years ago. I used to make each student one giant cookie complete with all the fancy decorations. The new cookie cutters were a medium size, a mitten and a snowflake. I figured that even when Christmas was over and the winter lingered, I could still use them and they wouldn't be inappropriate. I made these cookies to eat at home. Maybe I'd let my husband have one or two. But then, I realized I needed some to give away, so I made a boatload of the very tiny cookies and packaged them up. They were popular among recipients. But I thought they looked lonely. So I had a friend over to show me how to use my new Spritz cookie maker that my mother-in-law had given me the previous Christmas. Making spritz cookies ended up being way more fun that I originally thought. And they were very tasty too. My husband ate most of those. Then I decided I needed to make some marshmallows. You may not know this about me, but I crave marshmallows. If there is a bag of marshmallows in the house, I will eat them all in one sitting. Well, we didn't have any marshmallows in the house. I googled a recipe and it turns out that making marshmallows is really very easy. So I made several batches, cut out in star shapes, for my brother and sister, and me. Unfortunately, my cookie cutter shapes were too bug for a regular sized mug of cocoa. I don't think it was a deal breaker, but I amended that later by buying some smaller and cuter cookie cutters specifically for the marshmallows. I hope to return to my previous life of writing soon, when I finally tire of making cookies, or more likely, after my clothes have become tight enough to convince me that I need to lay off the cookies. Happy Holidays, Everyone!
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I remember the excitement of visiting the public library as a child. The magic and suspense of reading favorites like The Velvet Room and The Secret Garden tugged at my imagination. Biographies of George Washington Carver and Betsy Ross allowed me to see the lives of those who came before me and to appreciate their accomplishments. Poetry collections like my favorite The Tall Book of Poems, which I took with me on sleepovers, introduced me to a range of poetry where I could consider how the placement and rhythm of words affected your mood – sometimes bouncy, other times melancholy. Plus, I really loved the way that book felt in my small hands. My goal in writing children’s books, I think, is an attempt to recreate those feelings, those early years of reading books where everything seemed possible.
I received an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and won the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award from SCBWI. I worked as a Children's Librarian for 20 years and still prefer to read books written for young people. I have two Cavapoo dogs named Prince Albert and Daisy Wu, and a black kitten named Mortimer. I am married and split time between homes with my husband Rod in Dayton, OH and in Cadiz, KY where we enjoy our pontoon boat on Lake Barkley.
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