About Me

Hi! I’m Shelly!

I was brand new in 1948 and the middle child in our family of five children. Most of the time growing up, I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. Up until high school, my school only had four rooms – two grades per room! There were only eighteen students in my class.

My high school was larger, and I still wonder why I took four years of Latin. I had fun working on our Yearbook as the Writing Editor trying to come up with lots of captions for all the pictures. I also wrote for our Literary Magazine and submitted some of my poems, found the theme for our Yearbook, and was the mother in Little Women, our Senior Class play.

I worked my way through college first receiving an Associate Degree in Radio and TV. This degree helped me get a job at Procter and Gamble in the Motion Picture/Video Department. My next degree was a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. School was always easy for me, but I saw it was not for many others, so I wanted to help them. I went on to earn a Master’s degree in Learning Disabilities. I taught all ages in remedial reading and remedial math both in the Cincinnati Public Schools and in the Hamilton County school system. I ended my teaching career as an Educational Therapist in California. For six of the twenty-five years I taught in a mobile classroom. You must ask me about this someday!

I am a PAL Member of The Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators. I won their 2015 Merit Magazine award for my non-fiction article that has been reprinted three times in The School Magazine entitled “Human Towers”. I also have available an e-book THE BIG BOX OF BLOCKS for younger children with great illustrations by Frank Fiorello. Just like LION LIGHTS, the theme is to never give up!

I married a wonderful, supporting husband, Kim, and he had me moving all over the country with his career in computers. We lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dover, Delaware, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and Thousand Oaks, California where we retired. My stepson, Jeff, came to live with us there too. He is now married to Kathryn, has a family of his own, and I have two fabulous, smart grandchildren, Carson and Sienna.

After we retired, we sold / gave away all our furniture and most of our worldly belongings and moved into our RV. We traveled for fourteen years in our home on wheels mostly hanging out in the Southwest and exploring the deserts with our jeep. Writing on a moving table was not easy, but I would always find time after we stopped for the day. We also enjoyed traveling the world and creating memories in many different countries. All these adventures helped me collect stories and write about all the interesting people I met.

Now, I live in St. George, Utah and just love living here finding more stories and adventures. Even though I continue to write, I enjoy yoga, hiking, jeeping, exploring rock art and riding my e-bike. 

I hope you like and are inspired by Richard’s story in LION LIGHTS and you will tell me all the amazing things you do. I will be cheering for you!