Reading has always been my favorite entertainment, my preferred escape from whatever is crowding my mind. But during two decades as a lawyer and an autism mom, I had little time for myself, and books slowly slipped out of my everyday life. On vacations, in airplanes, yes — but not in the ordinary rhythm of my days. I missed them.

Life got in the way, as they say.

Then, in 2014, I found myself writing a legal brief at 3:00 a.m. while my family slept. Exhausted, I took a break, and one of my favorite historical novels suddenly came to mind: Désirée by Annemarie Selinko. As a teenager, I had pulled it from my mother’s shelf and read it again and again, swept away by the story of the French silk merchant’s daughter who was jilted by Napoleon and ultimately became Queen of Sweden.

That night, I began searching for more about Désirée’s family, the Bernadotte dynasty, which still occupies Sweden’s throne. I discovered stories of passion, ambition, royal intrigue, and tragic love. While Napoleon’s armies marched across the Continent and young Englishwomen danced at lavish Regency balls, a great deal was happening in Sweden. And in the middle of that world, I found Jacquette Gyldenstolpe, a young Swedish countess whose story would not let me go.

I quit law and began writing the novel that became Butterfly Games. But I had a lot to learn.

I had never been to Sweden, knew little about its history, and couldn’t speak the language. More than ten years later, I’ve taken Swedish classes, collected antique Swedish books — my lovely Swedish antiquarian booksellers still can’t understand why I buy so many — and traveled to Sweden more than a few times. I have walked the same halls as my characters, stood in the landscapes they knew, read their letters, and translated their heartaches word by word.

Butterfly Games is my debut biographical historical novel, based on real people who lived in Sweden in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. At its heart is the story of a young countess, a prince, and a love affair with profound personal and political consequences. The novel won the Bronze Medal in Historical Fiction (Romance) in the 2026 Independent Publisher Book Awards and was named a 2025 Goethe Book Awards Semi-Finalist for Late Historical Fiction.

I wrote Butterfly Games with the hope that it will transport you to another time and place — and free you, for a while, from whatever is crowding your thoughts.

I hope you will enjoy it and follow me on my socials, where I share the never-dull life of a writer, mom, wife, and Shih Tzu muse living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.