ABOUT ME
It began with a book my grandmother kept on the shelf above my bed at her house. Its cover was filled with creatures with hairy bodies, sharp-fanged mouths, and baleful yellow eyes. They should have frightened me, but all I wanted was to know what they were and who was going to kill them. Thus began my love affair with fantasy.
I stole my brother's books and worked out a deal with my parents that I would get books in exchange for good grades. Oh, the smell of Borders and Barnes & Nobles. The books on miles of shelves—or so it seemed to a ten year-old. I would pull out a stool, plunk my stack of books down next to me, sort out which ones I wanted to buy and which ones I needed to read as quickly as possible before it was time to leave. I absorbed every story, every character, and one day I thought, I can do this!
I was blessed to have a mother who wrote and was a very good editor, and a father who was always saying, 'That's not possible. Gravity won't allow it.” I forgave him because he had a PhD in physics and he taught me to question my characters and to make them, and their worlds, both realistic and believable. I cried when my mother tried to give me “constructive criticism” after I had presented her with my first novel. I was too young to understand that she was trying to help and that having a complicated protagonist was a good thing.
I got over it, deciding to just keep writing. I began writing my own fantasy fiction throughout my school days because to do anything else drove me insane. A college Gothic Literature class helped me really understand how to weave supernatural elements into a story, balancing them with ordinary characters and vice versa. Reading Matthew Lewis's The Monk convinced me never to write a story with a helpless female protagonist waiting for a man to rescue her.
Short stories and several novels emerged, alongside a burgeoning interest in representing those I wrote about with a paint brush. Readers and teachers kept telling me my writing was getting better. I began attending writing conferences and connected with even more supporters. In one case, I met the editor from www.fictionalcafe.com, who published my art. Most recently, excerpts of Requiem for a Caged Bird were published, again at The Fictional Cafe.
I was born in Columbus, Ohio and grew up on a menagerie-style farm with horses, llamas, goats, ducks, chickens, and a wealth of cats and dogs. I fixed fences, mucked out stalls, and spent hours cutting grass. The sunsets were breathtaking and the lightning storms awesome in their ferocity.
I now live in Mount Vernon,Ohio. It's an old, small city where my family has a lot of history. My grandfather attended Kenyon College, just five miles outside of town, and he is buried there alongside my grandmother and uncle. Requiem for a Caged Bird was written because I needed something fun to work on to distract me from a troublesome novel and the pain in my joints that seemed ever more frequent. Such joy was even more important when I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2014. Despite chronic pain and days when my brain doesn't want to work correctly, my family is there to encourage and support me.
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I'm determined not to let my Fibro keep me from creating, whether it be writing or painting. If you are a chronic pain sufferer or have other symptoms which cripple you in one way or another, keep doing what brings you joy. And get a dog! :)
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