I started writing short stories when I was seven or eight years old. At eleven, I decided I wanted to be a naturalist like writer/artist Ernest Thompson Seton and, in later years, George Schaller. I abandoned work on a doctorate in zoology, however, to get a second master’s in journalism to fulfill my life-long desire to write novels and to popularize wildlife science.

Wildlife and its protection have been at the center of virtually all of my writing, including ten books and myriad magazine articles. I have worked as a writer, editor, communications director, and major-donor proposal writer for various wildlife conservation groups.