Everything I write is a plea for us to consider the lives of reptiles. I'm writing a memoir about my intimate relationship with iguanas. I've lived with 3 different species for 50 years (pictures of them here: https://lizardlady9.com/my-lizards/ ). For my "day job" I'm a reptile monitor on utility construction sites, charged with keeping threatened and endangered rattlesnakes and turtles out of harm's way. (For 7 years, I led a writing workshop at Sarah Lawrence's Writing Institute, and I loved the job, but needed to get outdoors more.) I’m a member of the IUCN SSC Iguana Specialist Group. With Fredric Frye, DVM, I’ve coathored an iguana biology and husbandry book published by Krieger, written three wildlife and reptile-themed essays for Talking Writing, two for The Boston Globe, two op eds for CNN (rattlesnakes and Jamaican iguanas). I've written 3 YA novels (my editor was Stephen Roxburgh; I met him when I got my MFA at Vermont College):
BLUE IGUANA, namelos, Spring 2014 Short-listed for The Nature Generation's Green Earth Award
THE SUNDOWN RULE, namelos, Spring 2010 Kirkus Reviews best children’s books of 2011
LIZARD LOVE, Front Street Books, Spring 2008 Booklist starred
Bank Street College book of outstanding merit for 2009