I’m an eavesdropper. I love stories, and I’m always covertly on the lookout for inspiration! Sad, beautiful, charged moments that seem too real to be true, that random instance that you didn’t realize was a turning point until years later, whenever I meet someone new, I want to know everything about you.
The Fortune Teller's Promise
I’m a cat person. To be honest, I love all animals (with the possible exception of mosquitoes), but I can’t live without cats. I love how they are soothing and silly and haughty, and they often like me back! My current feline companion is a very spoiled and peculiar tabby named Dilly.
I’m indecisive. Before I earned my B.A., I attended three different universities and changed major more times than I can count. I started out at a program for writing, but jumped into fashion design, economics, international studies, gender studies, and Russian. True to my beginnings, I finished with a plain old degree in English literature.
I’ve held lots of odd jobs. As people say, an English degree can be a great jumping-off point to everything and nothing, career-wise. I’ve held jobs in libraries, but some of my most fondly remembered jobs include delivering pizzas and caring for plants in a greenhouse. For years, I thought I’d never find anything that I was “really good at,” since I was so entranced by every new adventure that came my way.
Writing is in my family! My father’s grandmother was Grace Miller White, a novelist who began her career by adapting popular plays into novels. Her debut novel, Tess of the Storm Country, was made into a silent film starring Mary Pickford. Pickford later said in an interview that Tess was her favorite character that she ever played!
I love tattoos! I have three: a barn swallow, a thaumatrope, and a cat. My best friend and I have plans to get matching tattoos of our favorite quotation from Wuthering Heights.
I’d rather be outside. I grew up in Afton, Virginia, just at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a very small town, and I wasn’t the greatest at making friends, so spending solitary time exploring the outdoors became an important part of my creativity.
I write because I care about people. Why do we write stories if not for connection? I find the act of writing a great exercise in empathy, in putting yourself in others’ shoes, in finding things we all have in common.
I’m a multitasker. When I’m not writing, I’m caring for my two-year-old daughter and infant son, so I’ve really honed my multitasking skills. I write anywhere and everywhere I can throughout the day. And night! I wrote most of my first novel on my iPhone while awake during the night with my firstborn, who was incredibly colicky.
I’m in love. My best adventure yet started on a winter evening when I stopped for a drink during my walk home from work. The bartender was blond-haired, blue-eyed, and best of all, kind. It turned out that we’d lived in the same neighborhood for over ten years, even knowing some of the same people, without ever having crossed paths until then. Four and a half years later, we’re married, and have a house and two kids.