Recently Published Works

"The First Time in Years" (short story) and "A Week With Grandma" (poem) in Shout Them from the Mountain Tops: Georgia Poems and Stories, Volume 2, February 2012

"Making the Leap From High School to College Writing," an essay included in What Is "College Level" Writing? Volume 2:  Assignments, Readings, and Sample Student Writing from High School and College Classrooms, published by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), 2010

"My Time is Your Time," May 2010 The Toastmaster, magazine for Toastmasters International

"Teaching Writing Without Becoming Buried in the Paperwork," article published in Connections, a journal of The Georgia Council of Teachers of English (Summer 2009)

"Whistling in the Dark," essay included in What Is College Level Writing?  published by the National Council of teachers of English (NCTE) in 2006

"Vultures," "Dad's Hands," and "Ignorance," poems published in Shout Them from the Mountain Tops:  Georgia Poems,  published by Legacy Press (2003), a project of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English

Unpublished Works

The Welsh Harp--historical fiction in the YA category..read more below

I Want to Call You Sister--picture book inspired by grandaughters who are cousins.

Going Home--novel about a teacher who disappears...read more below

Works in progress

Code Word Robin--novel about a teacher who suspects foul play by a fellow teacher

Mac and Mae Learn to Play--picture book in a series to help kids learn to avoid bullying.

God Made the Turtle--Picture book about the the sea turtle


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The Welsh Harp   The life of twelve-year-old Gwen Thomas changes dramatically in the early 1900's when she leaves her beloved home in the Rhondda Valley of Wales and moves to America.  Her passion for learning to play the harp and her determination to rise above the difficulties encountered by a coal-mining family in Eastern Kentucky create an inspiring story for young readers.  Her challenges to fit in at school, help her mother birth babies, and survive a flood with her family are often painful, but Gwen is a survivor.

Going Home  What would make a middle school teacher in a small rural school in Kentucky suddenly leave her husband and kids two days before school opens?  That's the question everyone would like answered when she finally calls home a year later, saying she is working in a restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee.  Agatha's attempt to learn for herself what secrets from her past caused her to leave her family abruptly is the driving question of this novel.