The short version
I’m a writer of young-adult fiction, a full-time journalist and an aspiring cat lady. I blog on Thursdays (and occasionally Saturdays) about books, writing, my eco-DIY projects and sometimes my cats.
The long version
I love words. I always have. Before I could write them, Mom would write them for me. During these early years, I dictated “poetry,” lyrical masterpieces that offered a rare glimpse into the mind of a 4-year-old in South Carolina. (It was mostly about cats.)
By elementary school I was crafting elaborate stories about monsters and supernatural powers, being reprimanded for reading during class, and on two occasions being accused of plagiarizing my creative writing assignments. Upon proving the validity of my work, I was shipped off to young writers conferences — which were decidedly more fun than those trips to the principal’s office for copyright infringement. (I got to meet real live authors! I was living the dream!)
Middle school and high school were also full of words. Whether I was analyzing Joyce and Camus (and longing for a good YA read) or crafting “hard-hitting” news stories for the school newspaper, I could always be found with stories in my head and words spouting from my pen.
Perhaps my exposé on my high school’s polystyrene lunch trays paid off, because I found myself in journalism school at the University of South Carolina, where I covered 9/11 during my first day in the newsroom and finally boarded an airplane when I became an exchange student in Australia. But four years of education and student loans wasn’t enough. I stayed at the university to earn a master’s degree, freelanced for The Associated Press, traveled to Jordan and taught copy editing to undergraduates. To this day, I edit as I read with a pen in hand — I didn’t say I was cool. (No one likes to borrow my books.)
Upon graduating, I decided to test my passion for words in the real world, so I moved to Atlanta and persuaded a publishing company to hire me. Today, I work as an editor for the Mother Nature Network, which is a dream job for a tree-hugging, granola-munching writer like myself. (Sometimes I even get to write about cats!) But when I’m not in the office, my mind is creating fictional worlds or my nose is in a novel — typically a YA book because we all know teen lit rocks!
If you’re interested in reading some of my articles, here’s a good place to look. If you’re interested in reading my novel, it’s only a matter of time … I hope. (I keep getting distracted by other people’s novels. And cats.)
The opinions, viewpoints and rambling madness on this site are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my current or former employers. When they hired me, they knew nothing of my blog and little of my potential to become a crazy cat lady.
