About Me

I was born and raised in rural East Tennessee, but before you start cracking the hillbilly jokes, I have to admit to being a half-breed--half southerner and half yankee. You see, my life has been fraught with irony from the very start. The misfortune of being the runty kid from the south who doesn’t speak southern (due to her Rhode Island raised father) isn’t exactly a recipe for fitting in. In fact, much of my childhood was spent answering questions like “why do you talk funny?”, “where are you from?”, and “you’re from the north, aren’t you?” And as if my accent didn’t make me a big enough outcast, in middle school, I was plagued by braces, glasses and freckles all at the same time, not to mention being a rough and tumble tom boy.

In high school, my role as a pariah continued, due to my preference for baggy pants, black Tees and Chucks to low cut, skin-tight shirts and low rider jeans. And to top it all off, I was a Christian (and still am) with parents who had been married to each other my entire life (and still are, but I’ve lost count). Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly the epitome of the all-American high school student.

Most of my high school years were spent in the sanctuary of my room, where I would imagine pretty much any other life but my own, which led to the creation of characters and all sorts of imaginary possibilities. After high school, I attended Emory & Henry College in Virginia to major in Creative Writing and minor in Mass Communications. Ever the perfectionist (not to mention an annoyingly hard worker), I graduated with a degree in English and accepted a job at a newspaper in the mountains of East Tennessee.

Working at The Erwin Record in the tiny town of Erwin may not seem like much to boast about at first. However, the publication has been voted the state’s best weekly paper by the Tennessee Press Association for nine consecutive years. As the only full-time reporter, I had the opportunity (thanks to another perfectionist, along with a man with a fierce green ink pen) to hone my writing skills-which led to several awards from the Tennessee Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.

After two years as a reporter, I decided I needed another challenge, and ironically enough, I made the decision to become a high school English teacher. I earned my Masters degree in Education from Milligan College in 2006. While the life of a high school teacher is often rough, I enjoyed sharing my love of writing and literature with my amazing students. More importantly, however, my students shared with me their own love of books, which led to my infatuation with Young Adult literature. That infatuation, however, developed into true love, and I ended up writing my first novel only a short time later.

These days, however, I am making a career out of multi-tasking. After making the decision to return to academia to earn my final degree, I had to withdraw from teaching. Last July, I returned to The Erwin Record as the Associate Editor. In addition to editing, going to school, and working on my latest novel, I also teach Zumba® fitness classes, which keeps me healthy. Believe it or not, I am also a second degree black belt.

When not working on all the aforementioned "stuff," I can be found relaxing at home in Tennessee with my husband, Kevin, and my grouchy calico cat, Hazel.