Hi everyone! I’m so thrilled to be blogging about my debut year along with my fabulous fellow Debs Kai, Devi, Stephanie, and Martine.
Here’s a little bit about me:
I’m a Midwesterner through and through – originally from central Ohio, but I’ve lived in Chicago for the past 9 years. Chicago is my favorite city in the world, and I find it endlessly inspiring (yes, even during the brutal winters). My debut novel, TEMPER, is set here, too – more on that next week! I’m married to my college sweetheart, and we have two pets: an ornery old lady cat, and a chunky pit bull who thinks he’s a lap dog (my Instagram is mostly pictures of him).
I’ve been writing since I was young, but I didn’t get serious about it until a few years ago. As a kid, I wrote cute little books about cats and manatees, which my mom illustrated. As a teenager I moved on to fan fiction, and then in college I tried my hand at playwriting – including writing a one-act play about my ex-boyfriend, which come to think of it was almost a form of fan fiction too. I’d always secretly wanted to write a novel, but it seemed like an insurmountable task. I finally gave it a go during National Novel Writing Month in 2012, and I haven’t looked back since.
I went to grad school twice, because I like to suffer I guess. My thesis for my MA in Theater was about burlesque performance and the female gaze, and in the course of my research I: cataloged thousands of archival images of naked ladies, went to a burlesque pageant in Las Vegas (all expenses paid by my university, thanks Ohio State!), modeled in a pin-up photo shoot, and learned to twirl tassels. I’m still hoping to use all this burlesque knowledge in a future book.
My day job is working as a Knowledge Manager for a global data company. I primarily work from home, but since my company has offices all over the world, they’ve also sent me to some interesting places – including Sydney, Australia, where I got to check meeting a koala off my bucket list. I’m a hyper-organized, analytical, Type A person – which is perfect for my job, but sometimes gets in the way of my writing. I want everything to be logical and efficient and perfect the first time, and writing is rarely like that.
I’ll be posting every Wednesday through next August. Looking forward to sharing all the highs and lows of my debut author experience with everyone – it’s going to be a great year!
