“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
― Lloyd Alexander
We all have questions about the world and those that live in it. Why do people treat each other the way they do? Why are some people happy when they should be sad and others sad when they should be happy? Why am I so lonely when I’m surrounded by people that love me?
Why do we hurt the ones that we love?
I’ve been asking the same questions for three decades, but even if I’d had the language and insight to ask these questions at ten, twelve, or sixteen years of age, I would never have been brave enough to do so. Instead, I went searching for my answers where many other young readers search: In books. In Jr. High, it was Jane Yolen’s Young Merlin Trilogy that brought me first, and fully, into the realm of magic and fantasy. It was in her interpretation of a young, orphaned Merlin and the cast of characters that he loved, admired, and feared that I first began to realize that if I read long enough and imagined hard enough I could see myself in pieces of the boy who lost his voice but found his magic—and from that day on I’ve never been quite the same. Through Tamora Pierce’s The Circle of Five and T.A. Baron’s The Lost Years I searched for the secret to surviving adolescence and the loss of parental figures, and later Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth and Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel Saga continued to shape the way I see the world and those within it. I can safely say that without the epic stories that kept me grounded as I struggled through some of the hardest years of my life, I would not be the compassionate, emotional, artistic person that I am today.
Who am I?
- I am the mother of three boys, two of which are on the autism spectrum.
- I am #PTSDStrong and write often about the importance of caring, creating, and connecting with others who are experiencing and managing post-traumatic stress disorder.
- I am both an over-achiever and a procrastinator, which means I excel at plotting grand schemes when I should be folding the laundry and folding the laundry when I should be executing grand schemes.
- I am a ravenous consumer of mainstream media.
- I am also a dedicated supporter of indie creators and small business owners. I spend a great portion of my day daydreaming about a future in which the names of my clients and friends are as recognizable as the Kings and Martins, del Toros and Royos of the present.
- I am the Ultra-Fangirl—and I am not discerning in my tastes. I can fan-fawn over something as widely loved as Star Wars or as obscure as that manga you’ve probably never heard of.
- I really love ellipses… The only thing I love more than ellipses are M-dashes.
- I am terrified of the limelight but thrive on praise. Basically, I am starving for validation but duck and cover the moment an opportunity arrives to receive it.
- My short fiction had been published online at Fiction on the Web, Linguistic Erosion, Scrawl Brawl, and 101 Words.
- Dwarves are delicious. Dragons are better.
So, there you are, that’s me in a nutshell: A dragon-obsessed romanticist with more energy than time and never enough snacks. If you’d like to see more of the real me follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – or send me an e-mail. I’m always looking for new penpals!