Some background info:
I grew up on the Isle of Wight, a teeny-tiny island off the south coast of England — always with some form of art supplies in hand. After high school, I moved to Portsmouth to study at the college of art and design and two years later, transferred to Newcastle in the north-east graduating with a degree in Art & Design: Visual communication specializing in typography.

Despite my deep love for foreign languages, art took a stronger hold of my heart and so my career started off working as a junior designer at a regional newspaper creating page designs and illustrations. I continued to work at larger newspapers in Glasgow and Edinburgh, (Scotland) as well as freelancing for various magazines across the country.

In 1999, I leapt across the pond and have lived in the USA since. During my time here, I continued to work in newspapers, freelance for magazines and pursue more time working on illustrations. During the past four years, I branched out and started designing books for trade and independent publishers, as well as additional editorial illustration assignments.

It was through designing books — and an illustrator named Tricia Tharp — that I discovered the scrumptious world of children's books and illustration. Attending the national conference in 2006 and spending countless hours online researching the industry, unlocked a floodgate of memories of me as a child making pictures and writing silly stories into paper-folded books. Every presentation project, as early as primary school, was always a big art production for me. It's what I took pride in. Fashion wheels, spirographs, playdoh and plenty of 'lights-out' time sneaking a read at the latest Roald Dahl book. To this day, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Danny, Champion of the World are still among my favorites.

Since 2006, I've been on an incredible journey: finding an illustration style I can call my own; developing personal projects which include four picture book manuscripts/dummies and a YA novel and attending more workshops on writing aswell as illustrating.

I volunteer as editor-in-chief for the New Jersey chapter of SCBWI co-ordinating and designing the quarterly member magazine Sprouts.

Three things you might not know about me:
• Clowns freak me out
• I can't stand peanut butter but love to eat a snickers bar!
• At middle school, I desperately wanted to play the flute, but was given the cello instead.
I played it for three years but I joked around too much and was asked to discontinue playing. I can still play the recorder though!

Recent events/activities:
Oct. 13, 2007
Accepted to RUCCL (Rutgers Council on Children's Literature) for the One-on-One Plus Conference. Featuring more than 65 illustrators and authors, attendees met with 65
editors, agents and art directors with hopes of becoming published. Visit www.ruccl.org

Fall 2007
Worked with author/illustrator Pat Cummings on how to get the most out of my work, and improve two of my picture book dummies.

Nov. 27, 2007:
Visited Warren County Technical and shared my experiences of working on picture book dummies, and how to research industry-related topics to children's books.

Jan. 16, 2008:
Attended a first-page session for writers, held by SCBWI NJ. Marshall Cavendish Publisher Margery Cuyler and editor Emily Lawrence from Katherine Tegen books were the critiquers.

Memberships:
• NJPA (New Jersey Press Association)
• SND (Society of News Design)
• SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
• Hunterdon County Children's Writers Group
• Somerset Writer's group
• Illustration Group Soup (Online critique group)

Recent awards:
• A writer's contest at NJ SCBWI Mentoring Workshop, April. 2007
• American Illustration 2006/ selected for the Web site