About Me

Thank you for visiting my website. I am an historical fiction author with Roan & Weatherford Publishing. I have thus far written the first five books of my historical fiction series covering three generations of women of the fictional McKenna family residing in the Hudson Valley region of New York. 

My first two books, The Girls of Haviland and Beyond Haviland, are geared toward the Young Adult audience. They are available on Amazon, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble. 

The  next three books in this series, Netta’s War, The McKenna Correspondent, and Liberation Twins, fall under the women’s historical fiction genre. They explore strong, independent 

McKenna women from the first and second world wars through the turbulent summer of 1977. 

My love of local history began early on after seeing the movie Mary Poppins and reading the All of A Kind Family and the Little House book series. History found its way into my writing when I, along with my husband and my eldest girl, moved from Mahopac to Brewster in 1991. The former owners of our home showed us the Brewster Bicentennial book, which contained an article about their ancestors. I was immediately drawn to the profiles of prominent past citizens of Brewster, two of which, Marjorie Addis and Edith Diehl, inspired characters in The Girls of Haviland. I began clipping “Glimpse of the Past” historical photographs and articles which appeared in The Putnam County Courier. 

I remember feeling an instant connection to a picture of several young women who attended The Drew Seminary for Girls in Carmel. The picture was taken in the beginning of the twentieth century. I was particularly drawn to a girl in the center of the photograph who was noticeably younger and smaller in stature than the students surrounding her. She was trying to emulate the same Gibson Girl hairstyle and dress of her peers. I remember wondering about her. What was her story? She became the inspiration for my protagonist, Jay McKenna, in my first local historical fiction novel, The Girls of Haviland.

Research in World War I era Putnam County newspapers and at the Putnam County Historian’s office provided access to a plethora of information about The Drew Seminary for Girls, including student rosters, report cards, student course loads, the student literary magazine and vintage photographs.

Real life events find their way into my stories. I am drawn to the history of the Hudson Valley Region and Manhattan, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and both world wars. 

My current work in progress tells the story of the first women’s labor union which happened in upstate Troy, New York in 1864. This book will also explore the work of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Women’s Suffrage as well as the Abolitionist Movement within the Capital District of New York. After this book, I’ll be traveling back to the role women played in the American Revolution in Putnam County, New York, Danbury, Connecticut, and West Point. 

Please visit my blog on this website for story updates, and join my mailing list for book release dates. Thank you.