Look and Listen

Biography

I was always an odd child. When I wasn't sitting on my dog's house (with the dog, of course) barking at the neighbors, or pretending that the space under the weeping willow tree was a dentist's office with cavity-preventing bubble gum, I was usually on the computer...writing. I used to write short stories on Windows Paint and illustrate them. I'd print them off, cut the edges, staple them, and ask my mother to publish them. She never would, and she'd never explain why. Writing in school was great. My first story for school (preschool, of course) was about Santa and his reindeer. A few years later (after being told that I wasn't supposed to be able to read), I wrote Lima Beans for Breakfast, which was about a fat lima bean trying to escape the rabbit who wanted to eat him. I did all of the Young Writers Conference things. I never really got the purpose--it was just an excuse to leave school for a day. I'd whip off a short story or a bunch of adjectives (read: poem) and the teacher would send me. Near the end of middle school, I wrote a bad poem. It wasn't just bad, it was ridiculous. You have never seen stereotypical gothic poetry like this. Eventually, that poem became prose, and that prose became a prologue, and that prologue took some steroids and is now Red Sky, available from Double Dragon Ebooks. Go buy it, so that I get paid. It isn't that bad, considering how young I was when I wrote it. After Red Sky, I wrote The City, which isn't published yet, but will be. I love food, but some people don't believe me when I say that, because I'm decades away from overweight. Dark chocolate and sharp cheddar cheese are amazing.

Inspiration

Stephen King has had an enormous impact on the voice of my writing. Reading his works has encouraged me to use parentheticals in fiction writing. Ayn Rand has an amazing descriptive talent that's definitely worth emulating. And, of course, I listen to music when I write--mostly Marilyn Manson and Staind.