About the writer/primary artist
When you are young and aware that you are different from those around you, your imagination can become a strong and powerful way of coping with the world.
I had my sister help me all these years sharpen skills on storytelling, using stuffed animals as our actors, our own voices as sound effects, and our exposure to camp drama on TV as our prompts for storylines. Then there were the passionate teachers and lovers of books who helped me learn new authors.
The authors I first encountered as an 8-9 year old were heavy and well known to all of you now — Tolkien, Madeleine L’Engle, Lloyd Alexander, and Golding. The beautiful worlds and sometimes painful lessons that children faced in their stories caught me fast.
Often people ask me about my fantasy influences. To be honest, I’m less a fantasy reader than a fan of suspense/drama. I have read primarily the well-known and well-circulated fantasy/sci-fi authors like Bradbury, Kerr, Rowling, McCaffery, and Brooks. And I’ve spent a lot or more time with authors like Vonnegut, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, and Bronte.
It’s TV that has helped me understand serial writing. Watch LOST — one of the best examples of how I think serial writing should be handled… minus all that time travel, of course.
Other random points of debatable use and interest about me:
- I am female the last time I checked.
- I am Generation X.
- I believe Mac and PCs can coexist.
- I hate pancakes that are soggy.
- I can not resist cute things: animals, children, small toys, generally anything soft and squeezable, and baby animals.
- Due to the kindness of many friends and family, I have amassed a ridiculous number of random small things. I do appreciate these gifts, but they will eventually spill out from my closets and shelves and eat me alive.
- I collect books on fairy tales, the Japanese Meiji era period, mythology, illustration, and anime art books.
- I am a fangirl of samurai anime. See http://red-bird.org .
- I do have stuff on fanfiction.net that if you really wish to read, you can email me to ask how to find it. Be warned. It is obscure. See previous bullet point.
If you wish to look at my artwork and ideas, please wander over to the Devianart button under “Contact” section on the right and click away!
