About the Author
I am one of those individuals who is blessed (or cursed? The debate continues…) to have been born in the wrong century. I work as an accountant to pay the bills and support my numerous hobbies. My best buds are of the four-legged and furry variety: Kelty, my Chiaustiff; Kusasa, my Holland Lop bun; and Subundi, my Rex rabbit.
From a very young age I had a rather unusual interest in writing and the plays of the great William Shakespeare. I wrote my first short story in 4th grade and attended many productions of the Bard’s plays. Sometime in middle school I began to memorize large portions of lines of my favorite characters from the works of Shakespeare and Moliére. I watch movies perhaps a little too much and shocked my parents when I was able to quote whole movies, such as The Lion King and The Road to El Dorado, from start to finish. As I grew older I never lost my love for those childhood classics and I accepted live-action movies into my memory as well, most notably the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Over the years I spent almost all of my free time writing one creative story or another. When Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl came out in 2003 I became, well, er, obsessed. I jumped eagerly into the realm of FanFiction (stories written by fans using characters from movies, TV, books, etc.) In high school I was encouraged to enter a local writing contest and I won in my category both years I entered. I even got to read one of my short stories live on local cable! It scared me to death. See, until then, my writing had been just for myself. I shared it on fanfiction.net but that was far less personal than me actually reading something I wrote aloud. Many people encouraged me to pursue publishing but to timid little me it seemed an impossible feat to get a publisher to accept my work. I never tried.
In 2013 I caught wind of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and thought “what the heck? Let’s do it!” Over the month of November I badly abused my muse and we managed to crank out over 50k words (the goal.) Suddenly I had a completed manuscript in my hands. I was confused. Aside from my FanFics, I had never actually taken a story from start to finish; the tales I told were conglomerations of scenes in a rough timeline but lacked a solid beginning and end. Due to frustrations in my professional life at the time, I decided to take the leap and force this manuscript through the publishing process. I decided on self-publishing to get the book to market quickly and to save on costs and to challenge myself. I did the editing (with some additional input from family and friends,) interior formatting, and cover design. On April 22, 2014 my first novel, Flintridge, was unleashed upon the world.
And thus it all began…
Awards
Baker's Plays
High School Playwriting Contest 2006
Second Place
"Medieval 'Nights"
White Bear Center for the Arts
High School Writing Contest 2004
Award of Excellence
"The Darkness of Confusion"
In Memoriam
Darby
May 10, 2017 - July 29, 2019
Goodbye my sweet baby girl. Your time here was too short but you taught me so much. I'll miss your cheeky attitude. You were the best Darbleraptor a mom could have asked for.
Scout
reg. Chrysler LeBaron
February 4, 1988 ~ September 7, 2017
I am devastated at losing you, my love. Soulmates, that's what we are. Thank you for your patience with all my stupid antics, you're the best.
I'll see you around.
Savvy Hunter Mocha
December 2, 2003 ~ June 24, 2014
Rest in peace my beloved boy.
Our time together proved too short, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I'll see you again, in Heaven, someday.
