ABSTRACT
E-mail: DAR60187@aol.com
“I grew up in Chicago, the youngest of five children. My grandparents were musicians and dancers in the theater. By the time I was seven, when I wasn’t reading, painting, or drawing, I was busy re-creating my mother’s childhood memories of the theater in my own stories. When I turned nine, my mother bought me an eight-millimeter film projector. On Saturday afternoons in late autumn and early winter, when the weather was too cold for my friends and I to play outside, I’d set up the folding chairs in my basement, pop popcorn, and sell tickets to my ‘movie theater’ to all the kids in the neighborhood. Later I turned to music and became quite an accomplished trumpet player.
“I still get my ideas from movies, paintings, music, and the theater. My childhood friends, the children I meet, and my own two little boys often provide the foundation for an interesting character. As a children’s book author, my purpose is always the same: I write to entertain and to share my vision of life’s hope, its beauty, and its promise.”
