About Me

This is the part where I try and sound really interesting.  Mostly I'm not.  I just write and watch past seasons of Gossip Girl on DVD.

Well, what sorts of things do you like?

John Deer. A family heirloom
that now hangs
on my living room wall.

I like dirty martinis, New Orleans (Everclear slurpees! Crawfish etoufee!), high heels, fluffy skirts, cashmere, expensive glassware that I never use because I'm afraid I'll break it, and large dogs. Taxidermy, too. I'm a sucker for taxidermy. And memes. Oh, God, the memes...

What do you do with your copious spare time?
I like reading, sewing, drinking, running, and cooking. I've painted a fair number of surfaces in my house, and I find it kind of soothing. I also spend way too much time researching my family genealogy.

Are you related to any interesting people?
Probably Lizzie Borden, if my sources don't fail me. Also President Franklin Pierce. Bonus points if you know which other U.S. president this also makes me related to, no matter how embarrassing that is.  Maybe Hugh Capet and mother-friggin' Charlemagne, if you believe the Derkeiler medieval genealogy newsgroup.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

First, I wanted to be a princess. That hasn't worked out so well, but I can't begrudge Kate Middleton a thing. She is doing a much better job than I would have. I would mostly just beg the queen to let me borrow the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara until they threw me out.

What the hell do you do now that you're done with grad school?
Go to work. Damn, those student loan people aren't joking when they say six-month grace period. They literally mean six months to the day. So now I work for a local life insurance brokerage. The cool thing is that I've expanded beyond content writing into social media and content curation, so I get to sharpen my skills at this all day, plan on doing it for myself when I get home, then realize I'm too tired and just pour a glass of wine.  Bad writer. Bad, bad writer.

I want to be a writer, too!  Can you give me any advice?
At this point, my best bit of advice is that less is always more. You are never done revising. There is always more to cut, more to polish, less to say directly. Subtlety is beauty and language is everything. And always write what you want. Never let someone tell you a particular genre or type of story isn't worth your effort. If it's the story you want to tell, tell it no matter what.