I was born on August 18, 1966 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I was one of SIX kids!  I remember when my parents left for the hospital to have the last

The good news? It was a boy!  The bad news? They named him Christopher, not Bobby. Bummer! (Hey- I could dream, right?  Especially since my Mom's name is Carol and she did name my brother GREG!)  We were consoled with the knowledge that he at least got the REAL name of a Brady kid: Peter was played by Christopher Knight. Whew! And like the Brady kids, we had a dog, too.  Except ours was named Domino, not Tiger, and Domino didn't suddenly disappear-POOF!- without any explanation! We lived at the shore so we went to the beach every day in the summer. I was a beach bum! Since my parents refused to hire Alice as our maid, I had to rinse the sand out of the tub myself.

When I was nine, I was hit by a car and was in the hospital for a long time.  (The Brady's station wagon was nowhere in sight!) Being in the hospital was not fun!  But you know what was fun?  Reading all the great books my Aunt Barbara brought to me while I was stuck in a hospital bed!  I became a big-time reader!  I also got to watch The Brady Bunch all day long.  If I couldn't be with my brother and sisters, (Tracy, Karen, Ted, Greg and Chris) I figured being with Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby and Cindy was the next best thing. After I saw them in concert at Steel Pier in Atlantic City, I had high hopes that they'd call and ask me to join The Silver Platters!

When I was in high school, I had to get a job to help pay for college.  No, I didn't work at Haskell's Ice Cream Parlor like Marcia and Jan. I worked someplace even better: James Salt Water Taffy on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.  It was there that I first realized that you can't believe everything you hear: no salt water is used to make taffy. Nope. None. Nada. I went to Seton Hall University where I decided to become a teacher.

Soon after I graduated college, I met John. I discovered that he was a huge Partridge Family fan.  Gasp!

But guess what?  He turned out to be my Johnny Bravo! Since he was practically perfect, I married him. He proposed to me by singing this #1 hit of theirs:

Okay...I made that part up. By that time, I had given up my dream of becoming a member of The Silver Platters and was teaching first grade in Basking Ridge, NJ. I later went on to become my school's librarian. That's where I got my itch to write books. John and I have two great kids and neither were named after the Brady or Partridge kids. He wanted to move to Hawaii but I reminded him of the evil Tiki statues that are buried there. So, I still live in New Jersey...just not at the shore.

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