About Moi!
Just so you know!
I’ve been a writer and an editor for many years, and I’ve written and edited all kinds of content involving words on a printed page. National magazines? Yup – People, Travel & Leisure, and Allure, among others. Newspapers? Uh-huh – for seven years, I was a reporter and assistant editor (as well as the intrepid dining critic) for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. I’ve worked in academic publishing (The MIT University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts), and I spent several years writing about cable television. I’ve also written advertising and marketing content, most notably during the two years I spent as marketing and communications director for a pair of world-class fitness resorts. But it wasn’t until I started working with children’s book publishers – and occasionally writing books for children myself – that I at last found both my professional “home” and rich turf in which to take root as a writer. I’ve written many elementary-school texts and a handful of picture books and middle grade novels that have been warmly embraced by toddlers and other young readers as well as parents, teachers, and librarians.
As a children’s book author, I’m hardly prolific. The occasional stories I want to share in print seem to mulch for a long time, and all of them have been inspired by my own family and friends. I grew up in Virginia, near Washington, D.C., but raised my own three spirited (and now quite grown-up) children – Andrew, Henry, and Hannah Bayer – in San Diego, California, along the irrepressibly sunny shores of the Pacific Ocean. Not long ago, I started a new chapter of my life in Kirkland, Washington, where the sunsets over Lake Washington – with Seattle twinkling on the horizon – are every bit as spectacular as those sunny days in SoCal. And although starting all over again has been a lesson in humility, it’s a good reminder, too, that “home” has as much to do with what you carry with you as with geography. Hmmm, maybe there’s a story in that notion.…
A perch with a view!
After almost 20 years in San Diego, I started a new chapter in the Pacific Northwest.
In a Nutshell
Born: Washington, D.C.; on June 1st, many years ago
Hometown: Falls Church, Virginia
College: Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont (My twin brother is an alumnus, too!)
Other Education: Stanford Professional Publishing Course, Palo Alto, California; Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Middlebury, Vermont; Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Current home: Kirkland, Washington
Other homes along the way: Boston, Massachusetts (after college – go, Red Sox!); Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado (young married chapter); San Diego, California (where my kids grew up)
Siblings: Two older sisters, one older brother (deceased), and one twin brother, my best friend forever!
Kids: Andrew, Henry, and Hannah Bayer – all terrific young adults! Was married for many years to their great dad, Richard S. Bayer, Esquire. www.richardbayer.com
Favorite things to do: Hanging out with my terrific young adult kids (see above!) and amazing friends; reading and writing; talking about books with kids, teachers, and librarians; watching movies and listening to all kinds of music; cooking (Cleaning up? Not so much!) and exploring great little restaurants; practicing yoga and meditation; taking long walks; traveling and sharing adventures in places that are new to me; watching the sun set – or the rain fall! – over Lake Washington at the end of each day. And yes, reading and writing … or at least thinking about writing!
