About Author

We moved to New Jersey, which was a culture shock for us coming from Alabama. While there, I connected with major publishers in New York City and became involved in writing and editing textbooks. I loved writing and developing creative educational materials for young children. However, I quickly learned that there is a significant difference between what we know about how children learn and what sells textbooks.

We returned to Georgia, where I taught at Augusta University and later at Georgia Southern University. By then, we had two children. Through my writing and research, I was recruited to work in the testing industry. We moved to Cleveland, and I worked for The Psychological Corporation, developing educational and psychological tests. While I enjoyed the challenging work, I remained passionate about creative writing for young children. Many of my book ideas came from working with my own children. Math and science are challenging concepts for most people, not just children. I decided to write a picture dictionary for math and science aimed at young kids, but from a unique perspective. I researched the words and terms in math and science for young children and wrote detailed art specifications so the illustrator could bring the story to life. The idea behind the books was for parents and children to sit together, look at the pictures, and discuss what was happening in the images, which would define the words. It was a novel concept that had never been done before—and still hasn’t. I wrote First Math Dictionary and First Science Dictionary, which were also published in Spanish.

Due to their success, I wrote a series of 9 books titled Helping Your Child at Home with Mathematics. These books offered creative ways to teach children math using common household items. They were endorsed by the National PTA. A few years later, when my children were in religious education, I decided to apply the same concept to Catholic terms. Religious dogma can be difficult even for adults to comprehend. I met a nun who was also an artist, and together we wrote A Child’s First Catholic Dictionary. The book was published by Ave Maria Press at the University of Notre Dame and won first place the year it was published by the National Catholic Press. Now out of print, I was encouraged to create a revised edition and a Spanish version. With one billion Catholics worldwide, half of whom are Spanish-speaking, and the growing Hispanic population in the U.S., I decided to make the book more user-friendly and changed the title to My First Catholic Dictionary. It is a beautiful book where the pictures define the words.

Through my work and writings for prisoners’ children, I was invited by the Prisons Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts to write a play about incarceration. While many understand the trauma of a loved one going to prison, few consider the stress families face when that person returns home—often for the second or third time. This overlooked issue became the focus of my play Homeward Bound, which explores a prisoner’s struggle to confront his unresolved flaws as he prepares to reunite with his wary wife and confused son. In 2009, the play was performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after the book was published, tragedy struck our family, and we were separated for a long time. During that period, I finally came to terms with having been sexually assaulted as a child. As part of my healing process, I wrote An End to Silence: Help for Men Who Have Been Sexually Assaulted. This book is not a therapeutic guide but rather one that offers hope and suggestions for healing. It is written in an accessible way for victims and their advocates, emphasizing that healing from sexual assault is possible.

Because of my interest in children with special needs, I wrote a series of books for children of incarcerated parents. There are over two million children in the U.S. with a parent in prison—a significant social problem that is often overlooked. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the children left behind face unique challenges. I wrote Kofi’s Mom, Doogie’s Dad, Where’s Dad? (a novel for children with a father in prison), and Two of Every Hundred. The title Two of Every Hundred reflects the statistic that, at the time, two out of every hundred children in the U.S. had a parent in prison. I also founded a nonprofit organization called Children Left Behind to advocate for these children. Over time, I expanded the organization’s scope to include all children who do not live with their birth families, such as foster children and children of deployed military personnel. The organization is now called Family Bridge Network (Family Bridge Network).