When I was a kid, some of my favorite books were the Dorrie the Witch series, Old Black Witch, the Cranberryport books, and the books by Ida DeLage. There were other favorites, of course, but these were the ones that stuck with me, the ones that followed me into adulthood. ​

 

What do these books all have in common?​

 

They were simple stories set in small communities. Home and family played a large role in them, and everyone came out just fine in the end. Those were the stories I always loved, and those are the ones I read to my children when they were little. ​

 

I don't pretend to be of the caliber of those, to me, great authors. But I've always wanted to create my own worlds, to have my own characters that galivanted across the page getting into mischief. This is the basis for Cripley Hollow and the Star Hearts. 

 

Some of the books are a little longer than your average picture book, and the images are created with AI, but the story is the important part, the place where the young and young at heart can go and just be for a while. These places are meant to be a home away from home, a place of safety and joy, a place to get away from the rush, hurry, and constant movement of the modern world. ​And if someone, somewhere, reads one of these stories and decides that maybe, just maybe, making home somewhere you want to be rather than always looking for a reason to leave it...if just one person remembers that home and family should take precedence over all else...then I'll feel as if I've made some kind of difference in a world that's much too busy and much too loud.