I'm a late bloomer ... petals still opening to the light. Sometimes I'm tempted to mourn this status -- finding so many persons younger than I am way ahead of me on the journey. Rather than force my growth, I find it wiser to simply allow the sun to transform me at its own pace.

My memoir The Scent of God was published by Counterpoint in April 2006 in hardcover and in paperback April 2007 and was a Book Sense Notable for April 2006. That same year the Minneapolis Star Tribune named me one of "Best of 2006 Minnesota Authors." I have been writing a column for the Cook County News Herald for the past 10 years, and have been published in various regional and national publications and anthologies.