Me in a nutshell: avid rejection letter collector (aka writer), musician, grad student, coffee addict, wine lover, bad movie mocker, and all-round geek.
Me in a much bigger nutshell:
That writing thing? It’s my mom’s fault. Well, the musician thing is her fault too, but the start of my writing adventures is more entertaining than me practicing clarinet and piano.
One day when I was about eight or so, I made up an adventure with my stuffed animals and pestered my mom to come watch it acted out (it would seem that this story serves as an early example of my theater geek tendencies as well). Busy mom that she was, she told me to go write it down so she could read it after she finished up whatever she was doing at the time. Much to her surprise, I did. The result was a three-page, handwritten play called King Temp’s Pets. After that, writing down every silly idea that popped into my head seemed like the obvious thing to do.
Fast-forward to today. My short fiction, which ranges from the dark to the wacky, has appeared in publications such as Fantasy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Black Static, Shimmer, and Wilde Stories 2011: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction. I have a novel in the works as well, lovingly referred to as My Bit Fat Epic Fantasy Novel. I’m also a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, where I learned valuable things about writing and the evil ways of chickens.
Since earning my Bachelor of Arts in English literature and music (vocal performance) from the University of Maryland, I’ve spent most of my non-writing professional life working for various performing arts organizations, from cataloging for a music library to grant writing for opera and theater companies. I’m currently pursuing a masters degree in library and information science at Rutgers University with the goal of becoming a music librarian.
I also do some singing, instrumental, and theater performances on occasion—when not hunched over a keyboard or otherwise earning a paycheck, that is.
I live in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia with my wonderful husband, who indulges my geeky tendencies and ensures that I am well-caffeinated each morning. The latter is presumably done out of self-defense.
