About Me

I’m a writer and a mother. I write every day. I write about being a writer and being a mother. I write about being a poet and a wife. And I write about how sometimes I have no idea how to be all the things my heart wants me to be.

I believe in love. I even have it tattooed over my heart.

I have two perfect children. Jett, he’s the sensitive-inventor type, and Miller, she’s the mighty-break-dancer type. My hubby Nick (heretofore referred to as ‘the hubby’) is my one true love. This is our third life together. At least, that’s what the psychic said. In this life, we’re the creative parent types – and love is all around, all the time.

I have six tattoos and counting. My nose and ears are pierced. My sides and boobs are stretch-marked. My belly is jelly and wobbly. I like my legs and my eyes the best, and how my top teeth fit nicely over my bottom teeth when I bite down. I heart kissing…especially the French kind, and I do believe it’s high time we brought back the kissing booth.

My first published book, Laughing Through A Second Pregnancy – A Memoir was published in April 2011 by Black Moss Press. Whisky Sour City, a poetry anthology about my hometown Windsor, was published in 2013 (Black Moss Press), and was my first published book as editor. My first book of poetry, I Am That Woman, was published by Black Moss Press in January 2014. Look at Her, my second collection of poetry was published in 2016 by Black Moss Press and has gone into a third printing. In 2017, I was included in a group of seven poets to write poetry for Because We Have All Lived Here, an anthology about Windsor. A new collection of poetry entitled ‘thimbles’ will be published by Palimpsest Press in 2021.

I love all things storytelling and often compete in The Moth in Detroit, Michigan as well as talk about storytelling with my friend Dameon Wilburn, a Moth host and Grand Slam Champion, and the host of Dame’s Eclectic Brain, a podcast.

You’ll get to know me well if you choose to subscribe or sift through some of my past blog posts. You’ll note that I love to take photographs, that I love chocolate and food, in general, and that I write about all kinds of things, especially if they’re related to living a writer’s life. I feature Guest Writers, people who inspire me and who, I feel, are making an impact on the literary landscape of today’s world. Yeah, the world.

I am the owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room – A Gathering Place for Writers, a small office and writing space where I teach creative writing workshops and classes as well as offer mentoring and editing services. It is a dream come true.

Truly, thank you for reading. Please, move around. Check me out. Get your creep on. Subscribe. Drop a comment or two. Tell ALL your friends.

I hope I make you laugh and think and read and write and love…just a little more than you did before you got here.