It all started when a family member gave me “The Bobbsey Twins” series and Nancy Drew. The first mystery story I ever wrote, age 9, was “The Case of the Missing Brownies.” Spoiler alert: turns out, the dog was the culprit. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in English and spent several years as a copywriter and corporate communications marketing writer for many top Chicago companies. When I had my first child, I started freelancing for a wide variety of clients. In particular, I’ve written for many parenting publications including TODAY Show Moms and Chicago Parent magazine.
Since I almost always have my nose in a mystery novel (culinary cozy mysteries especially), I decided to take the plunge and write my own cozy mystery. The Callie’s Kitchen Mystery series features a Greek-American heroine (I married into a Greek-American family) who lives in a picturesque waterfront town inspired by the Geneva Lakes in Wisconsin (always a favorite place to visit).
I love to write about food. Food is a big part of my novel and my amateur sleuth has a food-related job. One of my proudest foodie/writer moments was when my essay and cookies were semi-finalists in the Chicago Tribune’s annual Christmas Cookie and Essay Contest. I wrote about how a 1950s Greek church cookbook helped me find a way to recreate my favorite childhood Christmas cookies in nut-free fashion so that they were safe for my daughter to eat.
When I’m not working at the computer, I’m an avid reader, cook and baker. I’m addicted to Masterpiece Mystery series (DCI Banks, Inspector Lewis), BBC America mystery series like Broadchurch and my favorite Netflix go-to, Midsomer Murders. I enjoy retro/vintage everything – fashion, music, movies, ads, home décor, and cookbooks.
I live in the near Western suburbs of Chicago with my wonderful husband, two daughters and one cute but demanding Yorkshire terrier.
