I've been telling stories since I could talk, and writing them down since my parents bought me Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (my handwriting is AWFUL). Serious efforts at novels began for me in high school. Note that I say efforts. They, too, were AWFUL and have met their deserved fate of oblivion. My greatest writing watershed moment, though, has to be October 2004, when I began my fan fiction AU known as the Dangerverse (now completed after ten years and very nearly two million words). Writing the DV, more than anything, is what taught me how to be a writer.

There is time which is not spent writing? I love to read, enjoy cooking and eating, and sing with my church choir. I also pet my crazy dogs a lot, and my new kitties when they will deign to allow me near them.

Author was never in question. Indie... I don't like to give up control, and if that means I have to keep my day job for a while instead of peddling myself to publishers, so be it. The good stuff always gets found out sooner or later, and I write good stuff (if I do say so myself).

My latest published full-length work is my novel "Killdeer", in which a young lady named Elspeth, bored to tears aboard her brother's starship, searches the computer banks for some new music and instead finds an entirely new race of people called the Aelur, who need her help. She has to successfully navigate the pitfalls between their world and hers, conquer her fears and worries, and learn how to fight for herself but also accept help when she needs it.

I've continued this story in all of my holiday collections, with "Glorious Song of Old" in "Sing We Now of Christmas" (which was actually published before "Killdeer" itself!), "Enough" in "In the Bleak Midwinter", "The Tenth Lady" in "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", and "Sun and Moon and Stars of Light" in "Masters in This Hall". All of these stories are now available for FREE in the unitary collection "Star of Wonder", and a fifth story, "Carol of the Bells", will become available with the publication of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" at the end of November 2016.

My family is close-knit and loving, though of course, like any family, we can irritate each other from time to time. I try to portray this same kind of family in my writing, because I think too often in stories that involve families, the irritation gets star billing and the love gets pushed to the side. Family drama is a classic for a reason, but is drama the only thing a family has to offer? Not in my experience.

Telling a familiar story in a fresh and amazing new way. Bringing the audience with me and showing them, however imperfectly, what I see when I sit down to write. And let's not forget being able to vicariously punch in my enemies' faces and throw them off cliffs by naming stupid evil peons after them. Saves me a bundle on court fees and bail!

My fans are my friends, my support base, my cheering section... in short, they are awesome, and I will do everything I can to keep them happy. (Except reprieve that one character. You KNOW the one I mean.)

I love Nora Roberts for her characterization (though not for her smut scenes) and Mercedes Lackey for her settings (though not, dear heavens NOT, for her internal consistency). I'm also fond of Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, Anne McCaffrey, Brian Jacques, Ellis Peters, C.S. Lewis... and of course one could never forget Madame J.K. Rowling.

The world I'm currently writing in, Dareva, has elements of both fantasy and sci-fi, and uses my slightly... strange sense of humor to explore topics like power and powerlessness, hope and hopelessness, and what you do when you feel like you have nothing left that you can do. It's definitely inspired by some personal experiences, as well as by some recent media exposures of mine, and it's turning out to be a lot of fun to write. The first novel, "And One Shall Cry", came together quite fast early this year, but I'm still cleaning it up so it's not ready for publication yet. The second, "To Follow Dreams", is my 2016 National Novel Writing Month project.

If you want a sneak peek into Dareva, why not check out "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" when it launches on November 29? The second story, "Ding Dong! Merrily on High" features two of the main characters of "And One Shall Cry", along with introducing the setting and one of the seminal plot elements.

The fact that I like eating and staying warm better than I would staying in bed all day. (Need paycheck.) If I were a full-time writer, I might not need to get out of bed, since the power cord on my dictation headset will indeed reach that far from my computer...