About Me:

I spent the first eighteen years of my life in a small town in west central Illinois. My mom and dad both have nine brothers and sisters; I am an only child. How’s that for learning from your past?

Family legend has it that I learned to read at the age of three by looking at Archie comic books. (For the record, I’m probably closer to a Betty than a Veronica, but I always liked Jughead the best.) My love of reading never abated, and by the time I hit sixth grade, I started writing stories of my own.

My high school years were spent reading everything from V.C. Andrews and Phyllis A. Whitney to Stephen King and Agatha Christie, writing goofy short stories and essays, and hanging out with friends. I graduated high school in 1993.

I attended St. Louis University and graduated with a degree in Clinical Laboratory Science in 1997. I met my husband at SLU, and we were married in 1998.

While I had written stories all through high school and college (several teachers encouraged me to ditch science and major in English so I could become a Writer), I didn’t start seriously writing for publication until 2003 or 2004. Since then, I’ve sold four short stories. Currently I’m shopping around a Young Adult fantasy and working on another, as well as polishing a few short stories. That, combined with my day job as a clinical microbiologist and hitting the gym a few nights a week, keeps me busy.