One Writer’s Journey

I’ve called myself a writer at some points in my life, and other times — like most writers, I think — I’ve called myself a fraud. But I’ll never forget when I first felt like a writer — third grade, Mrs. Stoll’s class, my first ever creative writing unit. While other kids struggled to come up with ideas, I couldn’t stop my pencil as it tore across the page. My magnum opus that fall was a multiple-chapter Superfudge fanfiction. I’ll never forget the feeling of power and possibility.

I wrote a lot as a child and a teen. It’s what I did for fun, especially when school was boring. And by a lot, I mean multiple 200 page novels. I went to college to teach English because I knew that’s what my idol, Stephen King, did to pay the bills while he wrote. The next thing I knew I’d been teaching for eight years and I wasn’t a writer. I was 30.

My New Year’s resolution that year was to give this writing thing a serious go. Now, seven years later, I’m not famous yet, but I’m on the path, I hope, to making this my primary career. I’ve won short story contests, released a novel, and been published in literary journals and poetry collections. I am so thankful to my family for their support, and I hope that you find something on this site you’d like to read!

To read my work, click the link above!

I call myself a renaissance writer because I’m a renaissance reader. I will read pretty much anything. I don’t have a specific genre I’m stuck in, and I write the same way. I believe what Faulkner says about reading the classics and the trash, and learning from each. My blog “I Know What I Know” is similarly omnivorous. You’ll find posts on there about everything from body image to cooking to the history of wax museums.

I love talking to people about my work, so please contact me! Click the contact link to find my email and social media. Always looking for connections and opportunities. 

I have an MA in Teaching and Learning, and I teach for more reasons than just to pay the bills! I love what I do, and I’ve learned so much about life, reading, and writing by teaching English at the secondary level. I currently work as an interventionist and teaching coach and I love my job and my small-town school!

I live in Lisbon, IA with my husband, my daughter, and our four spoiled cats. We keep ducks in our backyard and we live in an old church we’re trying to convert into a home. Yeah… first house I ever bought and it’s an old church! That’s a story of its own. I love to travel, specifically to France and New Orleans. I read, write, knit, cook, and try to learn a little French here and there.