Look and Listen

Biography

I'm a disconnected journalist turned interior designer who most loves to play in the land of make believe so I write fiction on the side.

I love the drama of a good story whether its told in book form or other media. I'm as much a junkie of good TV and film as I am books. The three together consume a lot of my time.

For me, books and good films were always an escape from a life filled with divorced parents, yelling, stepparents and cruel older sisters (they are less so now, so no pity parties). In books, I could be anyone I wanted and have any host of special powers.

I was an inquisitive child who was never short on questions. Nicknamed by my family, first as The Little Professor, and later as Nanny, I had a penchant for both correcting people and caring for them that still exists to this day.

It seemed only natural that I became an editor at my college paper (after a brief sideline to study Chemical Engineering at Purdue) and later a journalist. The field satisified my need to be a know-it-all and to constantly learn about new things.

Corporate politics had their way with me as they have a number of journalists as more and more papers are owned by fewer and fewer companies so after a brief stint as a business reporter in San Francisco, I came back to the Midwest to figure out where to go next.

Still single and in my early 30s, I went back to school to study interior design and also found my way back to fiction writing, something I had started doing in elementary school, earning my way to a Young Author's Conference so many moons ago.

So now, here I am, still single, with an 11-year-old cat, a good boyfriend (YEAH!) and a second round of school loans. I'm at work on a semi-biographical piece of fiction that I'll tell you more about as things get closer and I still keep up my fan fiction which has taken on a life of its own as more story ideas continue to spiral out of my head. I hope you enjoy how they take shape.

Cheers!

Inspiration

La Femme Nikita inspired the fiction writer in me, and I have some fan fiction based on the show at Close Quarters Stansby. It's a reimagined Section One with some characters resurrected because, frankly it wouldn't be Section without them.

Feel free to leave me comments here or there. Three books are up so far and a fourth book is in the works when time permits. I tend to write on the fly - sometimes a chapter a night with my chat room guests as audience. It's a fun and challenging approach that I think comes from my days as a reporter cranking out stories on deadline.

Other work that has truly moved me includes all things Tolkien, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game books, and my friend Jen Turner's The Darkness Within series. Check her out too. She's gifted and has created a world where the characters are real - that is too say flawed - funny, dangerous, and tender. In short, I think she ROCKS!