Putting words on “paper” and letting them loose has a kind of magic, which frees you, which gives you power. Other people shove words at us — news, blogs, instructions manuals, political screeds – and that gives them power. We give birth to words, push them out of the nest, and watch their wings beat off into the distance. What could be more magical than that?

From childhood to this day, I have always made up stories when I couldn’t fall asleep, lying in bed while twisting plots and shaping characters. I suppose I would get more sleep if I didn’t want to find out what happens next to the dramas playing on my closed eyelids.

I wrote my first story, “The Haunted Space Station”, in third grade. Stories came in fits and starts after that. Years spent at university and in graduate school pushed me more toward technical writing. After that, as an engineer doing research and development, I wrote a lot of grant proposal applications… which turn out to be great training for writing fiction in that you have to know your readers (overworked peer reviewers, in this case) and create in the mind of the reader a coherent and plausible dream.

In the midst of juggling a job and two small children, I discovered fanfiction. The jangly anxiety of posting a story and waiting for comments was addictive. The barrier between writer and reader was so very thin in that world, which was scary and exhilarating. Stories flickered to life in my head, some sparked by interacting with other authors in the community. A wild ride!

At some point, I left the world of fanfiction and struck out on my own. Slowly, slowly, slowly stories came to life. A first book, Only the Moon Howls, was published in 2013 with help from a sharp-eyed editor and good friend at Biting Duck Press. A sequel, The Wolf’s Den, is coming soon!

You’ll find links and samples of writing on this site, as well as a blog where I will occasionally post random musings about writing.

Stories don’t stop leaking into my head.