About Me
First off, I have a confession to make. It was only a few years ago when I
finally decided what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I had read Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows when I was 18, and
had fallen in love with his animal characters. But I was off to Berkeley
and didn’t give writing another thought for 50 years. After graduating
from Cal I began a career in Personnel Management, where I worked in
both the public and private sectors – first in Academic Personnel in the
Chansellor’s Office, and then at the Lawrence Hall of Science on the
Berkeley campus. Next came Personnel and Office Manager at a large
Seattle law firm. I left the firm in 1987 to work with my husband, who
had just purchased a company out of receivership. We grew that
company from 7 employees to 42, sold the company in 2001 and
retired.
Now I wanted to give back to my community and my country. I joined the Board of Directors of the Pacific Northwest USO, where I served on the Executive Committee for 8 years. I had some health issues around
2014 and resigned from the Board, and soon found myself thinking about the Wind in the Willows. I decided it was time to get crackin’ on the children’s book I had dreamed of writing so long ago. I knew I wanted my story to be about lovable animals and decided I would also write it in rhyme. So now following the path of both Kenneth Grahame and Dr. Seuss I started to write.
When I finished my draft it was time to learn about the publishing process. I turned to the internet a group (Alli – the Alliance of Independent Authors) that could help me in the process of publication.
There turned out to be a lot more to this than I had imagined. Thru Alli I found my publisher. He was a wonderful find, and he and his team taught me so much about my genre – about the importance of
appraisals, about editing, and much more. Once I found the illustrator I wanted to work with, I learned about formatting. I took a crash course in marketing, and because of this class I presold 125 books before I even
had my finished and printed books in my hand. This journey to publication was a fascinating and thrilling adventure, and I loved every minute of it. Scooter and Friends Take a Vacation had been born.
I am now working on a sequel.
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Nancy is available for speaking events, conferences and author encounters. Her specialist keynote addresses the publishing process for an independent author, working with an illustrator and the importance of marketing. If you would like Nancy to speak to your organization, business, group or school click here to enquire. ​​