About Me

Who am I?

We all have a calling. Mine is to tell stories. I tell the stories of artists. Of actors. Of teachers. Of manufacturers. Of club managers. Of massage therapists. Of students. Of anyone who has a story to tell. Which is, really, all of us.

I began writing at a tender age. “Judy and the Four Bears” was my first, rather derivative work at age four. By junior high, I had figured out that non-fiction writing and journalism was a much better fit. I would be following in the footsteps of my father who was a life-long community editor and journalist.

My first entertainment/arts story was during those salad days when I wrote an obit for Karen Carpenter (I only recently figured out that most people don’t talk fondly about their “first obit”) and the advisor splashed it across page one.

Years and many newspaper jobs later, I landed a full-time job on the copy desk of the Lansing State Journal with a promise to my editor that I would complete my journalism degree at MSU.

From there, I found multiple platforms and mediums for telling stories, freelance and conventional, writing in technical, educational, journalism, or general interest genres. All sated my hunger to learn and my need to tell stories.

For 16 years, I worked for an educational publisher writing textbooks, training materials, case studies, assessments and anything else that was needed from language-free tests to video guides. Much of what I wrote there was sold around the world and used as the backbone for certification programs.

Now, I write for publications all around the country. My primary focus is performing arts and travel writing, but I continue to do and enjoy marketing, educational and trade writing. I delight in arts writing and the stories I get to tell. Tom Jones has sung to me. I’ve sung to Brian Stokes Mitchell (only a snippet–I didn’t want him to be traumatized). I traded Spartan stories with Renee Elise Goldsberry and talked Sondheim with Bernadette Peters. Alfred Molina confided why he keeps coming back to the stage. But more importantly, I’ve gotten to amplify voices that aren’t as well-known, that often get overlooked even though they have important, world-changing things to say.

I have a performing arts column that is published bi-weekly in a Michigan daily newspaper; I have arts stories published weekly and monthly in entertainment magazines and online publications in Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Chicago. I write about the arts for national magazines and online sites. I am a travel writer and local correspondent for Spa & Beauty Today and TravelMag. I am also a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the International Travel Writers Alliance.

Wherever there are stories to be told, that is where I want to be.

In April 2021, I wrote a column about my 2020–cancer, COVID, loss–and how much art provided me with hope and optimism.

Some of the publications I’ve written for include:

  • AARP Magazine
  • American Theatre
  • Ceramics Monthly
  • Encore Monthly
  • The Chicago Reader
  • Spa & Beauty Today
  • Joysauce
  • OnStage Blog
  • The Argonaut (Westside Los Angeles)
  • The Pasadena Weekly
  • Downtown Los Angeles News
  • The Lansing State Journal
  • Paste
  • TravelMag
  • Between the Lines/PrideSource
  • The Gay and Lesbian Review
  • ISPA’s PULSE
  • Lovin’ Life After 50
  • Lovin’ Life in Tucson
  • The Tucson Weekly
  • Between the Lines/PrideSource (Detroit, Michigan)
  • The Houston Chronicle/Chron.com
  • Playa Vista Direct
  • Green Shoot Media
  • SideQuest
  • Entertainer! (Phoenix, Arizona)
  • The Mesa Tribune
  • The Peoria Times (Arizona)
  • Spartan Magazine
  • Foothills Focus (Phoenix, Arizona)
  • Glendale Star