I’ve always veered from a conventional existence. I grew up in suburban Encino, in a home surrounded by wall-to-wall books instead of tchotchkes. Those books were a diary of my parents’ inner lives and I found warmth and company in them, would read to feel less alone. My father had saved his all-time favorite, The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, and passed it on to me. He had wanted to be a writer but it wasn’t worth it for him to risk financial instability so he went to law school and became an attorney instead and later, a producer of musical theatre. He’d hoped I’d inherited “the writing gene” and by giving me that collection of stories, would be inspired to realize his dream. That book became my base layer and propelled me, from the age of eleven on, to keep a journal full of moments and stories and poems. I was writing in these different forms back then, each one conveying a different level of intimacy. It was my way of processing emotion and an emptiness from feeling not seen, not heard. And it saved me.

I’ve worked as a waitress, a milliner, a receptionist, a jewelry designer, a front office manager of a world-famous photo gallery, a silver-polisher for Sotheby’s and a fine artist’s rep. And for a many years, I was an aspiring actress. But writing has been my constant. Since the mid-80s, I’ve been a poet, a playwright, an essayist and have written a novel. And I am the creator/producer of Library Girl at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, now in its 15th year. It’s a live, monthly mixed-genre literary series celebrating the written word and featuring some of the boldest voices in Los Angeles.

And at last, I’ve extremely proud to share the release of my debut memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person. With the exception of my greatest joy, motherhood, creating this book has been the most meaningful project of my life. I had always wanted to put a book together that collected the many forms in which I write. So when Eric Morago, the publisher of Moon Tide Press, asked to see my work, I told him I had a hybrid book in mind and sent him a skeleton of a draft, a merging of poems, stories, essays and fragments. He said he wanted to publish it upon completion. That gave me the jumpstart, the deadline to fully shape this project. I found a developmental editor, Bianca Stone, who helped guide and contain my multigenre vision. She’s a brilliant poet out of Vermont and we’d have sessions on Zoom to discuss themes and content: what needed to stay, what had to go and what was missing and still needed to be written.

For me, writing this book was the culmination of a lifelong quest for understanding, forgiveness and healing.

I wrote Now You Are a Missing Person with the intention of conveying that even in the depths of one’s sorrow, there is always joy that can be captured. Since its publication/release, it’s been an unexpected blessing to hear from some readers that I have helped them name their feelings and that reading this book has been quite healing for them.

The anchor of my creative life for the past fifteen years has been my show Library Girl at Ruskin Group Theatre, which was born from grief and a longing to find meaning again and reconnect with my community of artists. The Ruskin was where I had produced the one-man-show of my late former husband, Christopher Allport. After he died, Mike Myers (managing artistic director) and John Ruskin (founder) had approached me about creating my own event and encouraged me to make it whatever I wanted it to be. Since 2009, poets, playwrights, essayists, journalists. novelists and singer-songwriters have gathered every 2nd Sunday night of the month. to read/perform from their work to a listening audience. There’s always a different theme, usually inspired by a song title or a lyric.

A huge part of my mission is to support and present the small presses of Los Angeles and their writers. I’ve dedicated evenings to Moon Tide Press, Rare Bird Books, Santa Monica Press, Perceval Press, El Martillo Press, FlowerSong Press and Punk Hostage Press, to name a few. My son Mason Summit opened the show with his original songs since the age of 12. Now 27, he has since moved to Nashville with his love, Irene Greene, where they perform regularly as the duo, The Prickly Pair.

The Library Girl community is constantly building, growing, expanding. It’s important for me to give the same kind of open space to the writers I invite to the show as the Ruskin gave to me. I cultivate diversity, respectfulness, inclusivity in voices and perspectives and I do not censor writers’ work. Most of the time, I don’t even know what the writers will be bringing and love being surprised by their stories and songs.

Between Library Girl and having completed and published my book, I’m feeling a sense of creative fulfillment I’ve never before felt. I am grateful to all of the artists in my life who have shared of themselves so generously. And, after many years of grief and healing, I am overjoyed to be married again, to a true partner in every sense of the word.

It is never too late to accomplish what you dream of, to find love, to feel whole.