I grew up in a big extended family of eccentric Texas storytellers spinning yarns, including my grandmother, a poet, descended from Kentucky pioneers. I graduated from Sweet Briar College with a degree in American Studies, received an MAT from Emory University, an MLS from the University of Denver and had a long career as a both a Children’s and YA librarian. Currently, I spend my time researching and writing historical novels.

My husband, Doug, and I traveled all 2000 miles of the California Trail, and even experienced walking beside a covered wagon on a rattlesnake-infested trail to research and write my award-winning novel, Prairie Journey.

It was inevitable that my birth name, Bonney, led me to Billy the Kid, who is considered by many historians to be a Bonney. Although to my knowledge we are not related, I have always felt drawn to an outlaw who shares my name. As a teen, my father hooked me on Billy’s story when we traveled as a family to his New Mexico haunts. I returned to Billy the Kid country to research the story and wrote the novel to honor my father.

My first historical novel, Prairie Journey (Irie Books, 2012), for middle grade readers, received an Indie IPPY award and as been popular with elementary students studying the pioneer experience. Speaking Volumes published my essays “Billy and the Gun,” and “The Gift of a Gun,” in the anthology Guns (2016). I am active in Women Writing the West and graduated from Denver’s Lighthouse Writer’s competitive Book Project in 2021.