At first, I wanted to be a dancer! But I never had the chance to take dance lessons. And then I wanted to be a writer.

I was always a crafty kid, but I never considered myself artistic until I was in my early twenties. At some point in college, I thought that I wanted to be a writer. So after graduating from NYU with a history degree,  I landed a job as an assistant in the production/design department of Knopf Publishing Group. But instead of learning the ins and out of editorial, I learned about color and design from the people that worked there. I also learned about photography and art from the artists that were getting their work published. Everyone was happy to answer questions and let you look over his or her shoulder.  Because of that work environment, I began investigating my intuitive, creative side.

The move to the suburbs from Brooklyn made me drive more. I’m lucky that I have a car, though. If I didn’t, then it would be incredibly different to network.

I was recently in LA for 3 weeks. I spent a lot of time in Venice Beach, especially the skate park with my teen daughter. We watched the skateboarders for hours, and the sunsets were otherworldly. The mix of people, both onlookers and skateboarders, plus the location--I’m still sorting through the emotions and memories.

It was the decision to go back to school to study art. I was 42 going on 43 when I applied to Hunter College. I had success as a crafter, but I wanted to be in a structured environment while investigating my artistic abilities. I wanted to know if I could translate my skills as a crafter into fine art. Most of all, I wanted to know if there was a difference between craft and art.

It’s hard to do the administrative stuff when all I want to do is the creative stuff. That’s the biggest challenge. Also, the creative side of me will sometimes come up with some crazy ideas, and the administrative side has to talk some sense into me.

The best advice I received is to never give up on something you truly believe in. Just keep working on it. Rejection is a big part of life, and you can’t take it personally.

When my kids were little, I often took them to our local hardware store. You have to understand that our local hardware store sells a lot of things other than hammers and nails to stay in business. They have quite a variety of candy for sale at the check-out counter--which was the big draw for my kids. But the idea of going to the hardware store simply for the candy...it felt a little wrong. So we always pretended to shop for something other than the candy. It was during one of these sojourns that we discovered a rack of colored duct tape: red, blue, yellow, green, white, and black. All three of us were drawn to it and that day we bought one roll of each color...plus 4 packs of Hi-Chews (yum). When we got home, we covered tin cans with it. Weeks later, I was still playing around with it. And over a decade later, I’m still playing around with it.

I am constantly coming up with ideas for craft books, and not all of them are winners. I thankfully have a literary agent who can advise me when I have a crap idea. She also tells me when I have a golden one. When I have a solid premise, I usually have 15 projects already made and photographed. So then I will put together an outline and write a sample chapter. I’ll run it by my agent, and then put together a full book proposal that contains the outline, sample chapter, and photos of the finished projects. She then sends it out to various publishers.

When I do have a newly published book, I work with a publicist for the bigger things like public appearances and interviews. I hate the sound of my voice and am awkward on camera, so I’m grateful when it’s a written Q&A (like this). The stuff that I do on my own is more social media-related. I’ll make little how-to videos on YouTube (just my hands!) and post photos from the book. I’ll do a give-away contest.

I’d love to write children’s books. That’s been a dream of mine. I would also like to have a barn where I can make art, teach art/craft, and host parties for all of my artsy and not-so-artsy friends.