An Army brat, Judy was raised primarily in Europe, where her father was posted after serving in World War II. The family moved from Germany to Austria and then to Italy, giving her insight into her European heritage. Not until years later did she realize that seemingly random childhood experiences would combine with her family history to become the foundation for her first novel, All the Seasons Never Lived.

Before she turned to writing fiction, Judy lived another life. In her early thirties she owned and managed two hardware stores, her first brush with entrepreneurship. From hardware she jumped to the telecom/technology field, becoming one of the founding partners of a start-up.  She won multiple leadership and sales awards and in 1997 was named one of the twenty-five top women in business by the Business Journal.

A past president of the Charlotte Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and a longtime board member, Judy helped start a mentoring program for floundering businesswomen called Extreme Mentor, a platform to steer women to success – and won a special award from NAWBO for her efforts.

Though she dabbled with writing through her years in the business world – white papers, technical reports for use within her company, columns as a subject matter expert for Business Journal – Judy did not consider herself a writer. A chance request from her granddaughter to write an outline depicting the history of her French ancestors inspired her in 2004 to pick up a pen and write. 

Because writing was still a spare time activity, All the Seasons Never Lived was fifteen years in the making. Another two years passed – careful editing, the search for a publisher – before it appeared in 2021. The process taught Judy how much she loves to write. Six months after All the Seasons hit the bookshelves she is halfway through the sequel.

A proud graduate of the school of hard knocks, Judy attended the University of Maryland, Okinawa campus, but only for a brief time. She is married with three children and nine grandchildren and lives in Charlotte with her husband Robert.