They told me that when I was little, I spoke in poetry, but school ruined me. It certainly wasn't the norm for schools to understand, let alone make room for"different drummer kids," back then. After some years of  homeschooling our own five kids, I learned how I learned, while figuring out how they did. We now have many grandchildren and I hand draw each of them a birthday poster to their specification. I love watching their wheels turn and the different creative ways they come up with what they want.

After our kids were all grown and starting to have kids of their own, I wanted to honor the memory of my mom and give my offspring and others a glimpse into the world I came from. I had had it in my heart to write/illustrate, “Zip Hop” for a long time. I found myself suddenly surprised that I really wanted to create it all digitally. So, I went to our community college and earned an associate degree in digital art, earned a certificate in technical writing, and took creative writing also. For me going back to school had its challenges. But this time around I knew things about my learning style, like taking notes is key to my understanding. Many of my fellow students were the age of my fifth child. They had cut their teeth on computers. I knew close to nothing. In most of my classes, I learned more from kind students and You tube videos ( I could pause those100 times), than the teacher. I think I graduated with an ulcer as well as very hard-earned A’s. You would think the next chapter would have been Zip Hop, but I froze until about five years later, when my little sister Jean said I wish you would finish Zip Hop. Somehow that one wish compelled me to take a leap and complete the picture book.