Petra owns Heron Lake Press, which publishes the Mixed Emotions card deck. She also owns the Whidbey Island Writer’s Refuge, a cabin in the woods where writers (or those working on projects) can get away and work toward their goals. And she owns Lead Your Ultimate Life, a life coaching practice in which she helps people get from where they are now to where they want to be.
Petra was raised in the United States and Germany by an American father and a German mother. She speaks German and English and has always been attracted to language. Her bicultural upbringing and later travels led her to ponder the similarities and differences between people. She learned that when people have nothing in common, emotions can bring them together, and when they have everything in common, emotions can drive them apart.
Petra graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in English, completed a year-long certification program in poetry at the University of Washington, and received her life coach training at Coach U. She worked as a writer and editor in public relations and the software industry for nearly 15 years. While working as a writer, she experienced several bouts of clinical depression and found herself unable to answer the question, “How do I feel?” She concluded that if she, a wordsmith by trade, found that question difficult to answer, surely others did, too. So she set about creating the Mixed Emotions cards.
Petra and her son Adrian live on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. She and Adrian enjoy living and working on 13 Moons Farm, where they care for chickens, ducks, a sheepdog, and a hive of bees.
