I come from the place of ice blue mountains that enclose me like crowned walls. I dream of green forests that smell of possibility. I am the child who found warmth under a gold lamp as I huddled with musty books beneath a gray cloud blanket. I come from a house filled with singing, shouting. Laughter in one breath, tears in the next. …
Store-bought Barbie doll houses were often on my wish-list, but never a reality for me. My need for the products I'd seen on TV was the mother of my inventions. I tucked fabric around VHS clam shell cases and stuffed a "pillow" lump on one end to make a bed. I clipped photos of flower arrangements from a floral catalog and taped them to the wall…
Cross a bridge of alligators and lollipops, braid the tangled hair of a ferocious lion, rescue a blue and gold baby dragon from cruel slavery...isn't this the stuff that a kid's dreams are made of? Before I started reading books to myself, my dad was reading them out loud to me. My Father's Dragon was a clear favorite from my childhood, but not just because the story was awesome…