Hello! My first name is easy to say, but not so much the last name.

It's pronounced: Slan-ska. 

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My favorite childhood memory is my yellow Schwinn 10-speed. Growing up in a small Michigan town located along Lake Huron, I felt freedom riding for miles with state parks and inland lakes as my destinations. But the best place it took me was to Grandpa and Grandma's house. There, Grandpa's imitations of whip-poor-wills and chickadees entertained me while eating Grandma's sugar cookies.

 

Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman started my love of picture books which progressed into motherhood. My children's favorite books included: The Widow's Broom, Silly Sally, Scruffy, Boober Fraggle's Celery Souffle, and The Z was Zapped, to name a few. Today, my grandson's favorites include, Carnivores, It Started With a P, and any Interrupting Chicken book. 

As a writer, I wish I'd written After the Fall, but Dan Santat beat me to it. ​

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While at Macomb Community College, an instructor encouraged me to enter an assignment titled, Grief Is... into the Changing Landscapes II writing contest. It won first place, and when life opened up time to write full time, my favorite genre was a no-brainer. Picture books. ​

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Currently, southwest Michigan is my home where I live with my husband and our pet cockatiel, Quiggley. When I'm not putting in the seat work, I'm volunteering at Blandford Nature Center, practicing Tai Chi, birdwatching, or working in my bird-friendly yard.

 

Thank you for visiting. 

 

Feed the birds. Eat chocolate. Keep doing what you love.

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Ellen