I had always wanted to be published, and considered self publishing, over the fear that going the traditional route wouldn't ever come to fruition for me. During graduate school and learning more about the publishing industry, however, really sold me on the whole indie author platform. I love being accessible. I love being in control of my own business AND my own artistic freedom. So self publishing seemed like the perfect way to go. Of course it's a lot of hard work and I'm still very much learning through a steep learning curve, but I'm enjoying the process.

My greatest joy in writing is being able to escape. I know it sounds cliche, but I started writing as young girl because I wanted to escape into the fantasy of the worlds I created in my head, and have them play out the way I wanted. It has helped me incorporate real life into fantasy life and work out things I'm going through at any time. And it's relaxing. Except when I have writer's block and have to wheedle it out of the dark recesses of my brain.

My fans are everything. Without them, I would be nothing. In fact, they are the reason I even decided to publish my debut novel, Masquerade. Without their support and their confidence that the story was good enough to be published to the wide world, I wouldn't be here. I love them.

My next project is a series of books about an American grad student in in a writing program (no, it's not a self insert, but I definitely drew from my own experiences) infatuated with her devastatingly attractive (aren't they all?) British professor. It's a little taboo. It's a lot sexy (hopefully), and there are secrets about his past that completely throws her world upside down. The first five chapter novella installment is tentatively titled "The Art of (Writing) Sex" followed up by a full length novel entitled "The Fiction in the Fairytale." I'm very excited about all of it--now I just have to finish writing it.

I have a lot of favorite authors, but at the top of my list are: Christopher Moore, Diana Gabaldon, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Michael Crichton and Jasper Fforde.

I have to admit, not a lot. I'm not a morning person. At all. But if I'm allowed to sleep in, the thought of creating new things!

The basics: watching my favorite TV shows, binging on Netflix series, seeing movies, Tumblring--you know, the usual. I also spend time with my family and friends.

On weekends, I'm an avid renaissance faire patron and sometimes "actor". I'm also big into geek conventions and other historical reenactment type things

I usually discover them by word of mouth. Or if I see a movie I like and it's based on a book, I'll go find it.

Yes. Well, it wasn't the first, but it was the most involved. I was in sixth grade. I really liked a boy. I wrote a story where the boy and fell madly in love and lived happily ever after. I think I still have it, but it's packed away right now.

Well, I can't say that Smashwords has contributed to anything--yet. It's my hope that Smashwords, with the breadth of distribution they offer, can help me succeed in the direction I want to go. I'm especially happy to have access to iBook catalogs since I don't have a Mac to manage the uploads myself.