Here’s wishing a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving to all!
Category Archives: The Lemon Seed
It’s That Time of Year!
It’s time for my annual self-promotion, hopefully just in time for your holiday gift-giving. If you have any book lovers on your list, try out one (or more) of my books this year! I’ve seen some delays in shipments of hardcopy books, but e-books won’t have any delay and are perfect for last minute gift-giving. I have adult-themed books about my time working as an intelligence officer in the CIA, and I have children’s books that have nothing to do with the CIA – both picture books and a new elementary-grade chapter book series, just begun this year! My books are available online anywhere books are sold, and are likely in some brick and mortar stores (authors always love it if you request their books in brick and mortar stores because then the stores will order copies!).
My books:
My first book, Single in the CIA, is a comical memoir of my life in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. It takes you through my adventures as a young, single woman in the intelligence world, and focuses only on my personal relationships while I was there – no work talk! It’s meant to be fun, but it ends up being sort of sad, if you realize that the book is set in the “premier spy agency”. Kind of disturbing, actually. This is the book I am most known for, and it began the series of books that I have now written, and continue to write.
My series, Mingling in the CIA, takes readers into the lives of officers in America’s premier spy agency. These short novelettes each focus on an actual real person I knew at the Agency, and takes the reader on a (hopefully fun) journey into their lives. I am currently working on the latest in this series, where you will meet a new character!
Mission: Stand Down, is a true-to-life spy thriller – my most controversial book yet. This one had the censors up in arms! It is highly redacted, but I still think you can get the gist of the book and it is one of my best.
Mommy Thinks She’s a Monster is a touching children’s picture book about moms and motherhood written from the perspective of a young child, who only wants their mommy to be present in their life. This was my first children’s book, and it was so much fun to do. I worked with a great illustrator, Paul Sewell, on this one – he was a delight to work with and he really brought my idea to life.
The Lemon Seed is a children’s picture book about thriving in adversity and flourishing, even in dismal circumstances and environments. This was my Covid shutdown project. In the very beginning, when we were the first in the country to be shut down and masked (Washington state had us beat on the first shutdown), I decided to challenge myself and see if I could illustrate my own book. It might not be perfect, but it is meant to look “homemade” and I’m really glad I did it.
A Manatee Miracle, the first in The Adventures of Shelly Beach elementary-grade chapter book series, takes young readers on adventures in the Florida Keys with a magical paddle boat. This book kicks off my newest series – this time for young readers. With this series, I hope to introduce kids to the wildlife of the Florida Keys that I was so lucky to grow up surrounded by.
Happy Reading & Happy Gifting!
My Appearance with Kerrin Black of Talent Finders
Don’t believe the doubters ….I always have many, many doubters. No matter how many times I prove them wrong, they still doubt me, but it’s almost like it encourages me to prove them wrong yet again…
I had a really great interview with Kerrin Black of Talent Finders – you can check it out here:
Turning Lemons Into Lemonade?
My next project was even more fun. I began to write and illustrate my next children’s picture book. I wanted to see if I could still draw at all. The project started prior to the massive shutdowns in California, but ended up being a sort of lifesaver once the real hysteria hit and all the children were yanked out of school. It gave my son a project to do with me, and I began to see his face light up once again. He never seemed to be into drawing or coloring before, but he took an interest in what I was doing and even started making his own illustrations for the book.
The Lemon Seed is a story of thriving in adversity and flourishing, even in dismal circumstances and environments. It has a very handmade look to it, and that was intentional. It wasn’t meant to be a message of the times, but it definitely ended up being one.
Life After The Agency
What does a former CIA officer do once she’s no longer a CIA officer and has a family of her own? She writes multiple CIA-inspired books, invents a baby product, goes crazy with a music album (followed by releasing singles), builds an app and writes children’s picture books, of course!
BurpMitt® products consist of super-absorbent, organic cotton products for baby and home. Mommy’s Gone Mad! is a comical music album for small children and parents of small children. The children’s album led to working on some more adult music singles. Cooking in the CIA is an app with recipes learned from years of entertaining and world travel.
If you would like to purchase a BurpMitt® product, you can find them on Amazon.
Cooking in the CIA is available on the App Store.
Mommy’s Gone Mad! (as well as the other singles) is/are on Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Google Play Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Napster and more!
As always, thank you for helping me support my family by purchasing any of my products!
The Lemon Seed
My second children’s picture book, The Lemon Seed, is now available just about everywhere books are sold! I wrote and illustrated this one myself! You can get it in hardback or e-version (hardback always translates better when you’re dealing with a children’s picture book).
A story of thriving in adversity and flourishing, even in dismal circumstances and environments. A children’s picture book about a lemon seed that gets thrown in the trash and ends up in the garbage dump, where it grows into a beautiful tree, supplying lemons to all of the animals.
I hope you like it!