Brief Author Bio:

I've been writing since I was a kid. My middle school gifted teacher, Mrs. Groos, believed that teaching kids English was better done through having them read and write than using textbooks. She fostered my love of reading and my desire to write, and she gave me the courage to audition for Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

Going to an arts high school has had a dramatic impact on my life. Not only was it an interesting experience personally - the usual high school prejudices simply didn't exist, and you were evaluated based on your arts talent, not on your race or religion or sexual preference - but I learned a great deal about writing and acquired most of my skills there.

I chose to let my art lie fallow for several years, but got back into it recently. Still, the novel I wanted to write just wasn't coming along the way I hoped it would. Two years ago, I put it aside to start helping my girlfriend with her fanfiction project. I figured it would be good practice, since I would have a built-in audience and get reader reaction every week. We completed a 485,000 word epic in two years, and it's one of the better known pieces in the fandom.

I learned a lot from Little Secrets, about pacing a novel, about controlling the reader's perceptions, and especially about discipline. We did publish 5,000 words a week almost every week for two years. I consider it my college course in novel writing. Now I'm back for the master's degree in noveling - we're working on the sequel, Heirs to the House of El, and I'm going to do my best to write 50,000 words of it in November. Because I know darned well I'm not going to finish it in a month - it looks to be around a 200,000 word story at this point.

If all goes well, this time next year I'll be working on something original for publication!