Resources

For Kids

Online Classes

I've broken down the "Creativity Under Pressure" lecture from my course at Lesley University, into eight short videos.

Creativity Under Pressure

A program for authors and illustrators about booking, creating, and pricing school visits.

School Visit Bootcamp

This 30-day program is for novelists who don't know where to start with a new project.

Writing the Zero Draft

Mentorships

Mentorships are a 12-week commitment, which gives us time for deep work on a section of a novel-length work, or 2 picture books.

I work with only 3 mentees at a time. Potential mentees are required to submit an application that includes a sample, an example of a piece of writing they admire and what they want to learn from it, and a bio.

There is no application fee at this time.
Please fill out the form below if you are interested in a mentorship.

Two crystal Ganeshas and my ceramic chicken, Henny.

This mermaid and pirate were the inspiration for Mermaid and Pirate!

These three friends live on my bookshelf. The first is a chicken I bought outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a day I went to do research for AFRICAN ICONS. The beaded chicken reminded me of some of the African art on display inside the museum. The second item is a nesting doll. The outside is Mama D'Leau from Looking for a Jumbie. The interior dolls are Papa Bois, the soucouyant, the lagahoo, and the douen. All painted in the style of Looking for a Jumbie. The third is another nesting doll created by Vanessa Brantley Newton. She has a book called Nesting Dolls.

This "reading owl" was a gift by an artist who made several "douen" creatures for me to give away when The Jumbies first came out in 2015.

The last pair of pointe shoes I danced in are on my bookshelf along with a ballerina figure that one of my 2nd grade students gave me as a Christmas present many years ago.

My daughter's first pair of sneakers.

I collect a lot of Lego buildings. They're fun to build and play with, plus I get to set up all the people in town the way I like. These two sets are the Detective Office and the Pet Shop.

I just had to get this Lego typewriter. It was also a fun build because the carriage at the top moves as you "type" on the keys.

The Lego treehouse took me forever to build because I was so busy writing that I wouldn't have time to work on it for months! I think it took almost a year before I finished putting it together.