I am SO EXCITED to be here, although not quite as excited, I think, as my mother and sisters, who have been plagued with requested readings and lengthy expositions of character development, plot twists, and the like.
My favorite stories are the ones that make me love the characters. My favorite genre is science fiction, but if I cannot connect to the characters, I will not like the story, regardless of genre. My least favorite genre is mystery, although if the story is more than just the mystery and the characters are real, I will enjoy reading it, regardless of genre.
I have mostly written personal essays--I've written quite a bit of these, but have never known how or if I should publish--but I recently have resurrected a story I was working on when I was a teenager. Obviously thirty-year-old me approaches the story differently--hopefully more realistically--than fifteen-year-old me. By realistic, I mean the characters must be true to themselves, must have motivations, must have faults, must face trials that test and refine them, must be someone the reader will cry with. The story itself is fantasy sci-fi, so the rules of the world only need to be consistent to be realistic.
My parents homeschooled my five siblings and I from Kindergarten all the way through high school. After moving seven times, my family settled in Groveland, Florida, in 2000 when I was seven years old. We lived on a ten acre farm and spent our days raising chickens, guineas, rabbits, goats, pigs, cows, and horses, along with tending the garden and running, wild and barefoot, around the farming neighborhoods throwing dirt bombs at cars passing by on the unpaved roads. My mother bought a bell that could be heard from three miles away to call us home for dinner.
When the Twin Towers fell, I was told the Antichrist was rising and we would soon be tortured to death. I believed it for most of my childhood.
In 2014, I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in English Literature, a minor in Writing & Rhetoric, and a certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I accepted a teaching position in Beijing, China with Disney English, which closed all centers in 2018 after I returned to the states. What will I do with an English degree? Teach in effing China, yo! Take that, haters!
In December of 2015, I returned to the states a little wiser and a little rounder with a recently acquired aversion to rum and tequila. I gave birth to my one and only daughter in May of 2016.
From July 2016 through March 2019, I taught high school English in the public school system. After the county and the administration and the curriculum had devoured almost all of my creativity, I gather the remaining threads and left teaching. I returned to the University of Central Florida to study Computer Science, which had been my original declared major during my first round of tertiary education.
I currently work for a government contractor, raise my daughter, and write. One day, I hope to fully support myself and my daughter with writing, while being true to myself and creating stories that I believe are masterpieces--worthy of tears, worthy of time--that neither sugarcoat nor glorify violence, discrimination, hatred, racism, lust, pain, fear, doubt, hope, friendship, love, reconciliation, forgiveness, but rather show them for what they are--the ugly and beautiful things that make us human.
If I wanted to sound discriminate about my health choices, I would say water, of course, is my favorite drink. Truthfully, I drink black, unsweetened coffee from six in the morning to six at night, and then I drink Cabernet or Pino Noir or a glass of both (wine not?). I likely will come to regret my caffeine dependence at some point. That point has not yet arrived. As far as eating, I am a grazer, not a connoisseur.
If you think we would connect, holla at me.
My favorite stories are the ones that make me love the characters. My favorite genre is science fiction, but if I cannot connect to the characters, I will not like the story, regardless of genre. My least favorite genre is mystery, although if the story is more than just the mystery and the characters are real, I will enjoy reading it, regardless of genre.
I have mostly written personal essays--I've written quite a bit of these, but have never known how or if I should publish--but I recently have resurrected a story I was working on when I was a teenager. Obviously thirty-year-old me approaches the story differently--hopefully more realistically--than fifteen-year-old me. By realistic, I mean the characters must be true to themselves, must have motivations, must have faults, must face trials that test and refine them, must be someone the reader will cry with. The story itself is fantasy sci-fi, so the rules of the world only need to be consistent to be realistic.
My parents homeschooled my five siblings and I from Kindergarten all the way through high school. After moving seven times, my family settled in Groveland, Florida, in 2000 when I was seven years old. We lived on a ten acre farm and spent our days raising chickens, guineas, rabbits, goats, pigs, cows, and horses, along with tending the garden and running, wild and barefoot, around the farming neighborhoods throwing dirt bombs at cars passing by on the unpaved roads. My mother bought a bell that could be heard from three miles away to call us home for dinner.
When the Twin Towers fell, I was told the Antichrist was rising and we would soon be tortured to death. I believed it for most of my childhood.
In 2014, I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in English Literature, a minor in Writing & Rhetoric, and a certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I accepted a teaching position in Beijing, China with Disney English, which closed all centers in 2018 after I returned to the states. What will I do with an English degree? Teach in effing China, yo! Take that, haters!
In December of 2015, I returned to the states a little wiser and a little rounder with a recently acquired aversion to rum and tequila. I gave birth to my one and only daughter in May of 2016.
From July 2016 through March 2019, I taught high school English in the public school system. After the county and the administration and the curriculum had devoured almost all of my creativity, I gather the remaining threads and left teaching. I returned to the University of Central Florida to study Computer Science, which had been my original declared major during my first round of tertiary education.
I currently work for a government contractor, raise my daughter, and write. One day, I hope to fully support myself and my daughter with writing, while being true to myself and creating stories that I believe are masterpieces--worthy of tears, worthy of time--that neither sugarcoat nor glorify violence, discrimination, hatred, racism, lust, pain, fear, doubt, hope, friendship, love, reconciliation, forgiveness, but rather show them for what they are--the ugly and beautiful things that make us human.
If I wanted to sound discriminate about my health choices, I would say water, of course, is my favorite drink. Truthfully, I drink black, unsweetened coffee from six in the morning to six at night, and then I drink Cabernet or Pino Noir or a glass of both (wine not?). I likely will come to regret my caffeine dependence at some point. That point has not yet arrived. As far as eating, I am a grazer, not a connoisseur.
If you think we would connect, holla at me.
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Fascinating life experiences! We're excited to have you here too and hope to see you at a 
Hopefully my dogged stubbornness paired with growth mindset will help me actualize goals.
