About Delia

So that summer after fifth grade when I found the key under the log? That’s about the time I began writing for fun. I even remember trying to sell my poems and stories way back then. I’d make copies and pester family members to buy them for a quarter apiece. My parents usually gave in and handed over the change in their pockets. My brother and sister? Not a chance!

Looking back now, I realize those years were great practice for becoming an official author. I’m so grateful that my journey in publishing landed me in the world of children’s books. You can click on the photos below to see some of the most important stops along my writing path.

To see captions, click on the photo below.

Here's the place where I grew up in Tidewater Virginia--an old farmhouse built in 1830 and originally known as Havers Hall. There were two ponds, acres of woods for exploring, and an old cottage out back that had once been used as slave quarters.
With the help of our cousin who visited every summer from Washington, D.C., my older sister and I formed a club called the Brave Girls. (I’m the one in the middle.) We dared each other to perform all sorts of crazy challenges, including exploring the collection of spooky abandoned houses that used to be scattered around the countryside near our farm.
My adventures with the Brave Girls and my pony Shadow provided plenty of inspiration for my early writing.
A sample from my first attempt at novel-writing. My best friend and I took turns writing chapters about our heroine Amy and her quest to outsmart Agatha—the evil witch with the “viciously” rustling skirts.
After graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in English, I attended a graduate course in publishing at Radcliffe College in Boston that was known for placing its students in coveted New York editorial jobs. While most of my friends from Radcliffe headed off to the Big Apple, I found myself moving to Seattle with my future husband Matt who was beginning his residency training program there in neurosurgery.
Luckily, one of my instructors from Radcliffe happened to be opening his own start-up publishing and marketing firm in Seattle and decided to hire me as one of his first employees.
Those first years at Laing Communications felt like a crash course in editing. I worked on a huge variety of projects ranging from a beginner’s guide to the Olympic sport of racewalking (yes, racewalking is an Olympic sport!) to a collection of tales told by survivors of bear attacks in Alaska.
After several years at the company, an amazing opportunity fell into my lap—the chance to write a non-fiction book for young readers about the Klondike Gold Rush. I’ll never forget my first book-research trip, when I got to travel to the wilds of the Yukon Territory in Canada to learn more about the gold seekers of the 1890s.
After almost a decade in Seattle, my husband and I moved to Iowa City, Iowa where we raised our three daughters and now live on eight acres overlooking the Iowa River. This is the view from the office where I write.
Watching my girls grow up provided plenty of juicy material for developing the relationships between the characters in my books, especially between the three feisty sisters in SINGING HANDS.
Now my daughters are off pursuing their own dreams for work and education. But they’re still the first ones I call when I’m looking for the most honest opinions on my story ideas.
A motley crew of family pets has been another source of ideas along the way. Our beloved mutt Griff who we adopted from the shelter became the model for Linc’s dog in HERE LIES LINC. I’m still searching for a way to sneak Orville--a reformed feral cat--into my next novel.