Writer · Author · Facilitator · Advocate
Welcome. This is the home of my writing, creative work, community projects, workshops, and independent advocacy.
Writing groups, facilitated workshops, creative programs, and community storytelling.
Explore community work →Independent consumer and community advocacy focused on access, accountability, and systems improvement.
Explore advocacy →I’m a writer, facilitator, and advocate. I write fiction and memoir, create spaces where writers can take chances, and advocate for people whose voices can get lost in complicated systems.
I believe a safe space can help writers flourish as they work their craft. In the group we have grown, ideas and encouragement are freely shared in a judgment-free environment where criticism has no place to fester or settle.
I ask and I listen. In our first few groups, three writers expressed an interest in memoir, prompting me to take a deep dive of my own. Having already written a memoir made the process easier, yet challenging as I developed a four-group arc designed for creative nonfiction as well as plain ole fiction.
What surprised me was where one of those groups took us. By narrowing a story down to one moment and working through seven steps to bring it into detail, something clicked. The interest it sparked led us somewhere new.
What Baraboo Writers Blast provides are literary and creative prompts, sometimes so silly, your side hurts. The laughter is infectious. Quick-Fires and unexpected challenges find their way in between the deeper work, giving us room to loosen up, experiment, and see where a few words might take us.
Everyone is a writer. Whether the words are written down or spoken aloud, they count. There is no right way to participate, and no one has to prove they belong in the room.
September 17, 2026 — The Time Capsule Key
What story can an ordinary object hold? Vintage objects become the starting
point as we use sensory details, imagination, and a little mystery to uncover
the stories hiding behind them.
October 15, 2026 — The Borrowed Perspective
Step outside yourself and into someone else's point of view. We'll experiment
with voice, personality, and perspective to discover how differently two
characters can experience the very same moment.
November 19, 2026 — The Elephant in the Room
Two characters. One confined space. And something neither one wants to talk
about. We'll play with dialogue, tension, humor, and everything happening
between the lines when the biggest thing in the room remains unsaid.
December 17, 2026 — The Snapshot Story
Can you tell an entire story in exactly 100 words? We'll take on the challenge
of flash fiction, where every word earns its place and a single paragraph can
hold an entire moment.
Ink & Imagination is a library-sponsored workshop series at Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library.
September 23, 2026 — Chapter Book Development: Step 3 — The Breaking Point (The Crisis)
Every story reaches a point where something has to give. We'll explore the
crisis—the moment when pressure peaks, choices matter, and a chapter or story
can no longer continue in quite the same direction.
October 21, 2026 — Chapter Book Development: Step 4 — The Internal Shift (The New Path)
What changes after the breaking point? We'll explore the internal shift that
follows a crisis and how that change can move a character—and the story—onto
a new path.
Both Chapter Book Development groups meet in the W.R. and Floy A. Sauey Foundation Community Meeting Room at Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library.
What's right has always mattered to me. When systems lose their moral compass, I want to do whatever I can to make things more bearable for those who don't have a voice—to help assure they are treated fairly, especially when disability is part of the equation.
I went to school to become a social worker and earned that right in 1995. It gave purpose to something already in me—a desire to help create healthy, respectful environments for the consumers I served.
Mental health became an area of specialty for me through both my work in the field and my family's experiences. In a world where it seems everyone struggles with their mental health in one way or another, my empathy has only deepened, along with my need to make sure people are treated right.
I love rules, regulations, and statutes—not simply for what they say, but for what they can accomplish when they're used as intended. Quality assurance became especially important to me while working in group homes, where I reveled in seeing positive changes I helped make improve the lives of the people we served.
When I hear the system has failed another consumer, my blood starts to boil. I imagine what I would do with my own voice if it happened to me, then think about the person who may not have that same ability to speak up.
I imagine the frustration of missing a psychotherapy appointment where much-needed trauma can finally be addressed, or the doctor who helps ease the pain of inflamed arthritis. In a rural community, you can be dependent on a van to reach the very people who help you heal. That van is a connection to the health care system, and when that connection fails, care can fail with it.
When I see a problem that needs to be addressed, and I know I'm able to help, it's hard for me not to. I ask questions. And with one question comes two. I research, and I dig. I find laws, contracts, and policies galore.
What begins with one person's experience can uncover something much broader. But even as the picture grows, I don't lose sight of where it started. That individual concern still matters, and ultimately, it needs to be addressed. I don't jump at the first available solution or decide what the answer should be before I understand what is happening. I try to remain objective, follow where the information leads, and then find others who may also have a voice—or who are in a position to help.
Knowing where I can contribute matters to me. Joining the CCS Committee gave me a seat at a table where my experience, questions, and consumer perspective have a place. It is one place I have chosen to serve, but my concern doesn't stop at the edge of one committee or one cause.
I believe a system should honor the protections it was built upon. Rules, laws, and consumer rights mean little if they exist only on paper. When I see those protections weakening or being overlooked, I am willing to speak where my voice can make a difference. First and foremost, the people those protections were created to serve are what fuel me.
I Thought I Was Being Asked Whether Discrimination Should Be Prohibited. I Wasn't.
A plain-language look at Wisconsin's Question 3 and what a Yes or No vote would actually do.
What if the fear you imagine isn't a memory inside you, but your insides bursting from a place only you can't explain?
The Sleeping State began with a fearful moment drawn from a dream. With each moment since, my world grew with every word my ink drew down, long before my fingers ever touched the keys.
Dread intimidates Gary's shadow with a lurking presence only he can place but never explain. Demanding another life while Gary lives what any human is supposed to yearn for.
His young son knew building skyscrapers were his father's direction. A peak not met yet.
Truth not spoken.
The story does not end here. It spreads into a world not my own, built by a mind wanting more.
Published · Trilogy continues with The Sleeping Planet and The Perfect Sleep — both in progressSpanning more than five decades, 20 Memories I Could Live Without reaches from childhood violence and family dysfunction to homelessness, generational mental illness, multiple deaths, and losses that change your very soul. Not all memories feel like my own, and maybe they aren't. Ordinary they may seem, but my normal is mine to bear.
Memoir · Work in ProgressDifferent work. Same person. Choose the address that fits.