My life has been an effort to see the beauty in being upended (because doesn’t life upend us all, again and and again?) To claim upendedness as a good thing. And to write about it.

That could mean anything from moving abroad to medical crises to personal and professional transformations—not just my own, but others’, too. I write for travel, science, and general interest publications like Atlas Obscura, BBC Travel, Southwest, The Sun, Bellevue Literary Review, and NPR. Some of my favorite assignments include a photo essay on the battered beauty and secret markings of container ships (Hakai Magazine’s most viewed article of the year and widely syndicated), a tribute to an unsung heroine of American architecture and design (Mary Colter), and the “origin story” of Meow Wolf, a dumpster-diving arts collective that morphed into a multi-million dollar company.

I’m also the author of a guide to moving to Costa Rica, now in its 5^th edition. My travel writing has appeared in Afar, Fodors, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. I’ve contributed to many guidebooks and have been interviewed on CNN, local TV, and  radio programs like Rick Steves Travel, as an expert on Costa Rica and moving abroad.

My novel set in Costa Rica, YOU COULD BE HAPPY HERE, is forthcoming in Fall 2025 from Sibylline Press. Check out my latest on Costa Rica (about a beach town that’s also an open-air art museum) or my take on the responsibility a writer has to the places I write about.