This is the start of a new career for me. You see, I became an accountant and worked the corporate accounting life for six years. Then my first child was born — my son, Josh (the illustrator of The Illusia Chronicles series) — and I was able to substitute my accounting career with a new one: stay-at-home mom. We had four children within five years — three sons and a daughter. To say we had our hands full is an understatement, but I loved it. (Being a very organized person by nature helped tremendously.) I stayed plugged in throughout their growing up years — volunteering at their schools, seeing them through early Cub Scout/Girl Scout years, serving on PTA and booster club boards, serving as a taxi service for them and their friends, etc. Now they’ve all graduated college and are married to wonderful people — three couples live close by in Texas and one in California.
Since I basically worked myself out of my stay-at-home-mom career and I chose not to re-enter the corporate world, I found myself a new career — children’s fantasy author. I have always loved writing and, with three sons, my love for fantasy books and movies grew. Josh, my oldest, has always drawn wonderfully creative fantasy creatures, and it was one of his high school drawings that served as the impetus for The Gem Keeper, the first book in The Illusia Chronicles. Josh’s drawings have provided writing inspiration for me many times, so it only made sense to ask him to illustrate my books and covers.
The Gem Keeper is written as a standalone book. There’s no obligation to read all six books in the series (although I hope you will!). So if you’re a reader around ages 8 to 14 (or older!) who enjoys the fantasy genre, give The Gem Keeper a try. My goal as an author is to create fun, safe, fantasy adventure stories for kids to enjoy and maybe bring a whole family together as they savor the books as a read-aloud. And if that happens — mission accomplished!