About Me
Independence Day, 1989, three
days after I was born, from the curb in front of the hospital, my parents
introduced me to the wonder of fireworks.
It has since been proposed that my fascination with large and noisy explosions
began that day.
The next few years were relatively
uneventful. I was a bit slow learning to
ride a horse well. But, by the age of
four or so, I was running just as fast---or maybe a little faster than my
cousins. Learning to drive was
unexciting, unlike my dear cousin, I did not crash through our grandparents’
barn. After a year of vehicular experience, I was too busy driving a tractor on
my parents’ farm to get into trouble with anyone...except the IRS. They refused to believe that I was making the
money I had put into my bank account.
Thus, for my first encounter with
the great government, I was audited.
My mother drove me thirty miles
to the office and was made to leave the room while the auditors interviewed
me. I didn’t even realize exactly what
was going on. I just answered all the
questions with the truth. I told them
about my horse, my cows, and the orphaned calves that I bottle-fed and then
sold. In the end, they believed me. My
reward? At the distinguished age of six, I became a tax-paying citizen.
Life continued, minus some of my
earnings. There were a few miserable,
snow-graced cattle drives, many books, and many episodes of Power Rangers. It was the last that caused me to start
Taekwon-Do when I was seven.
I got my first black belt when I
was twelve, I am now a 4th degree black belt. In the time between, I competed heavily,
winning more than a few state titles. I
made the US team three times, travelling to South Korea twice and England once
to represent my country. I won bronze in
2004, a silver in 2007, and two gold medals in 2010. I intend to travel to Canada in 2012 to
defend my title as Women’s Power Breaking World Champion.
Now twenty-two, I spend my time
working, writing, reading, training, playing music, shooting, and collecting
guns and guitars. I like guitars with
humbuckers and guns that shoot magnum rounds.
Writing, to me, is a natural
companion to reading. Without a doubt,
my interest in writing can be attributed in most part to my lifelong reading
habit---which got off to a rough start.
My mother/teacher homeschooled me
until I started college. Early on, she
(oddly enough) tried to teach me to read.
I hated it.
Luckily, before it was too late,
I discovered that there was more to read in the world than Aesop’s Fables. I have been thoroughly addicted ever since.
When I was ten, during one of the
winter cattle fiascos at our ranch, one hundred miles from home, I ran out of
reading material and promptly confiscated the book my Dad was reading. It was Dune.
At that point, all books became fair game and my passion for Science Fiction
and Fantasy was born. (Dune is still one of my favorite books.)
In the ensuing years, I devoured
such compilations of the written word with great pleasure, averaging a hundred
novels per year until I started school. It
was a sad day for my reading habit when, at the age of sixteen, I took my first
academic class. It was a terrible day
for my reading habit when, two years later, I enrolled full-time at the local
University.
Four years, a B.S. in
Mathematics, a B.S. in Computer Science, a minor in English, and a minor in
Ancient Greek later and my Summa Cum Lauded self is possessed of a booklist
that is still shamefully short. It
appears that my recovery will take time.
In 2008, somewhere in the midst
of my encounter with academia, I realized that I wanted to write fiction. My first story, “Big Iron,” was written and
soon won $75 dollars and was published in the El Portal literary journal.
Several stories in various genres and a fantasy novel, Remember the Alamok, (co-written with my
partner in crime...I mean writing) have since been completed in what little
spare time I find. I have four novels
that I’m working on now; three of my own and the Alamok sequel. A couple of other novel ideas are stewing
around, waiting for a turn.
In all my pursuits, I have a slightly insane desire to
pursue excellence. 