About Me

49, I surprised myself.

After decades writing speeches, marketing copy, newsletters, and finally a nonfiction book (Mission, Tribe & Grace: How Veterans Can Act to Lead Change), I found myself circling back to the stories that first lit something up in me: fiction.

Not the tidy kind. The raw, unglamorous, slightly haunted kind.
The kind where a woman disappears into the wilderness—literal or emotional—and comes back changed. Not fixed. Just more herself.

I’ve worn a lot of labels in my life: U.S. Army veteran, blind woman, coach, founder, stepmom, trail leader, keynote speaker. I’ve written on purpose and post-traumatic growth, built communities around books and the outdoors, and helped other people tell their stories.

But there’s something about fiction that feels like home.
Not because it’s easy, but because it’s honest.

The novel I’m working on now, Watershed, has been sitting inside me for over 20 years. It’s set in rural Oklahoma, where the landscape remembers more than it lets on. But it’s also about grief, legacy, reinvention—and the thin, fragile line between duty and desire.

This Substack is where I share essays and fiction that explore:

• what it means to come of age again

• how nature strips us down to the truth

• and why some stories won’t let go until you write them

If you’re navigating your own second act—or just like reading stories with a little dirt under their nails—I think you’ll feel right at home here.

Welcome. I'm glad you found your way..