About the Author

I’ve wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. When I saw this photo of myself, it reminded me of an author photo on the inside back cover flap of a hardcover novel. How crazy is it that now I’m there?! Well, I don’t think my first book has an inside back cover flap, and I don’t think it counts as a novel since it’s not a children’s book. But still I’m there! I’m just shy of 25 years old and my first book is about to be published. Pinch me!!!

Technically though, it’s not my first literary work, just the first one to be published. The first projects I remember working on were my magazines. I cut out pieces that interested me from existing magazines and pieced them together in ways that interested me. Lol, I just remembered I even cut up headlines and glued them back together with other words to make them sound juicier. OG fake news! This was also done in a physical notebook, not digitally or anything, and the notebook got soooo fat. I peddled the same copy to each of my family members and made them vote for the best dressed, coolest hair, and . The next issue would feature the results of last issue’s polls. As I type this I’m realizing I conducted research at age ~10, and the 19-year-old version of myself who failed college her research methods course is impressed.

After the magazines I switched to graphic novels, or rather a series of graphic novels about one main character named Mr. Mister. I think his first name might’ve been Bob. It was a secret (like adults’ names are to kids) and it was a huge deal in the series when it was revealed. I think it was teased for a few comic books before it was finally revealed during his wedding when he exchanged vows with his wife, Mrs. Mister. They’d go on to have a baby whose name was Junior Mister, or Jr. Mr. They were all circular people who had creepy claw hands like Roley Poley Oley. Mr Mister had a bow tie, Mrs Mister had swoopy hair, and baby mister had a diaper. Oh, the shenanigans they got into. I remember Mr Mister’s best friends were a triangle and a square though I forget their names. I’ll try my best to draw a recreation or find the originals in my parents basement.

My point is, I’ve always loved to write. I wanted to be an author and/or a marine biologist when I grew up. I didn’t even know what marine biologists did and I still don’t, I just picture looking at dolphins from a submarine. I sorta grew out of my author phase but I grew right into a reading phase. I was the kid who didn’t go anywhere without a book. I read nearly constantly, which I learned in my master’s program was a coping mechanism as I tried to escape into a world of fantasy that always had a happy ending. I read for years and found myself in a writing phase again in high school when I started my first happlilyeverafter blog. I kept with it for years but lost it somewhere during my college journey. The old blog posts made me cringe so I ended up deleting the whole site. I’ll probably cringe over this site someday too, but I’m taking a page from Taylor Swift’s playbook now and killing the part of me that cringes, not the cringey parts. Part of that is accepting that I’m long-winded and can’t not write long, fluffy pieces. Maybe I’m wordy because I’m an author. Writing a rhyming children’s book was challenging but exhilarating because it pushed me out of my comfort zone and worked stiff writing muscles. I’ve found myself longing to be in my high school english classes just to ask my teachers a few more grammar questions. It’s comforting to know that my writing journey is just getting started. I’m so excited to see what’s next!