Q: First tell us something about yourself.
I am an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background. As well as an alumnus of Boston University where I earned a B.A. in English with minor in Shakespearean theatre. My life is surrounded by nature as I live in a small hamlet of under 400 people where most of my neighbours are farmers, cows, sheep, mountains, trees and wildlife. I spend most of my days walking, painting and writing. Although occasionally I teach ESL classes to adults in a city about 45 minutes away. My family consists of two cats and a husband.
Q: How and when did your journey start as a writer?
I was officially first published as an adult back in 2017 however my journey began further afield than that. I began writing poetry as an adolescent. My parents were going through an acrimonious separation that ended years after in divorce. My family was in a lot of turmoil. I was very taken by my English classes but especially the poetry, so I decided to try and write my own poems to make sense of the chaos happening around my young life. My sophomore English teacher told me that I was a true poet.
Q: When did you write your first story? Is it published or not?
I do not recall exactly however my first children´s book, Queen of the Mountain I wrote in 2020 and then tucked it away not quite sure in what direction to go with it. After pursuing a traditional route and a lot of rejections from agents and publishers I decided to try a different approach and pursued a hybrid-publisher deciding to illustrate the story myself. I am now very happy that I did.
Q: Tell us something more about your books.
First and foremost, as a writer I am a poet. I have published a chapbook, Found: Between the Trees (Grey Borders Books 2019), as well as two full poetry collections At the Foot of the Mountain (Floricanto Press 2021) and Tourist (Seacrow Press 2023), and my current children´s book published by Rowanvale Books. I am an avid gardener and walk regularly in the forest and across the foothills, as a result nature is the main motif in my writing and my artwork. My poetry collection, At the Foot of the Mountain won the University of Indianapolis, Etchings Press Whirling Prize in 2021 for best nature poetry book.
Q: How did these stories and characters come to your mind?
In 2017 I hiked through one of the areas where Queen Victoria stayed during her time in Switzerland. Then in 2018 there was an exhibition commemorating the 150 years of her month long visit here. I started researching more about why she spent a month in Switzerland when I discovered it was to help her overcome the death of her beloved Prince Albert, this prompted me to reflect on my own loss which happened as a young child. I realised that for me the countryside of Switzerland has played a major role in my healing from the losses in my life, like Queen Victoria. I wanted to honour this by creating a book that assists children, and their parents on how to relate to loss. As well as to demonstrate how sometimes the most supportive friendships form across generational and cultural divides.
Q: Do you want to leave any message for your readers?
Yes, that one of the greatest gifts a parent can give to a child is to read to them. It helps a child to better relate to the world around them when they in turn can imagine themselves in the world of a fictional character . In terms of Queen of the Mountain, I wrote it with the main idea being empathy which is a core life skill. When children are exposed to empathetic characters it helps them to be able to mirror and develop a similar sensitivity in the real world.
