I grew up in a house full of people; Mom and Dad, four brothers, and two sisters, plus an array of aunts, uncles and cousins. I’d say we are a typical Italian American family. We did everything together, work, school, chores, church and especially golf; because golf was our family business. Every night we would gather around the dinner table, no excuses.

I met my husband Jeff in my twenties. I told my girlfriends he was the one guy I knew who I could NOT bring home to my parents. At the time, he had long hair and knowing my ultra conservative parents, well, let’s just say I knew they wouldn’t approve. So I married him. A few years back, we started Refuge Ministries  a platform from which we counsel and speak.

I credit my love of writing to my love of reading, and this I learned from my mother. Wisely, mom steered me towards the classics, especially C.S. Lewis, which changed my life. I began writing at a very early age; but I never took it seriously.

A few years ago, I noticed that all the kids I knew were obsessed with a particular, gross, series. Being a career kid person and an avid reader, I try to at least keep up with what’s going on in order to have intelligent discussions with those around me. So I read this series. I was both drawn in and repulsed at the same time. The hero’s were selfish and shallow and the story, overall, a bloody mess. This, I noticed, was a  I found nothing in these books worth living up to. I began to pray and I began to write.

I write as a direct answer to the dilemma and common theme among popular books: No sense of right and wrong, no firm, guiding moral compass and definitely no God to keep motives pure. There is a God and He is good. He urges us on to be more than we think we are, and to live with reckless abandon for Him. Real adventure begins when you commit your life to Him and follow His lead. It’s my prayer that through the stories I write, you will see more clearly who the author of life is, and how we are called to follow Him.