My relationship with the water began at age three. My parents took me on a multi-day canoe and camping trip, handing me my own mini paddle when we launched on day #1. We took the trip with our closest family friends, the Gilletts. I have watched home movies of their daughter and me doing something called "the Kool Aid dance" around a campfire at night. It all looks very Lord of the Flies.

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"WHAT were your parents thinking," you might be asking, "taking a three year old on such a trip?"

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Whatever it was, they ignited my lifelong love of all things water and water sport, which included a competitive swimming career from age seven (summer league), through high school (State Champs three out of four years), during college, and into Masters competition. My most recent job? Coach of a YMCA swim team.

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The first time I had success with writing was in fifth grade. I won an essay contest and a tree was planted in front of my elementary school as an award. I got to dig the first shovelful of dirt while the local paper took a picture. Fast forward to adult life, where my job for twenty-plus years has been advertising copywriting, writing for magazines, and most recently, for an internet tech start-up venture.

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These two loves - water and writing - come together in my first Middle Grade novel, Trident.