want to get to know me a little better?
i’m a homeschooling mom to three amazing children, wife to one amazing man, and indie fantasy author. in October 2011, we moved from the desert of Phoenix, Arizona to the mountains of Montana. the adapting has been interesting.
i love to write fantasy with romance woven in. (or maybe that's romance with fantasy woven in.) i published Eldala in 2005 and now the stories in my head won't stop. i finished the second draft of Eldala's sequel last year but the moving thing made me put it on hold. all i can say to those who are waiting (and to myself) is: it will be done when it’s done.
when i'm not writing, i love to read--to the point where i'll forget to eat. contrary to the writing advice out there, i don't read what i write (ie. fantasy) because i haven't found that many fantasy stories i like, but i do read romance. in fact that's almost exclusively what i read - historical, regency, biblical, modern, paranormal (sometimes) - it doesn't matter.
some of my favorite authors are Lisa J. Yarde, Kristie Cook, Teresa Medeiros, Cathy Maxwell, Mary Connealy, Siri Mitchell, John Flanagan, and Debbie Macomber. i'd be lying if i said i don't enjoy reading my own book. if you're curious, here's my Goodreads list. when i'm not reading, i'm playing around on facebook and/or obsessively checking my email. i still haven't given into Twitter and Google+.
i used to do scrapbooks and paper arts, but once the writing bug took hold, it turned into my obsession. i'm thinking about going back to it. thank goodness my daughter loves crafting or all of my paper art supplies would go to waste. maybe i'll take it up again in the future. when writing gets to be too much, i start to think i'd rather go back to scrapbooks.
i blog to encourage, not to build a platform or try to sell my book to hundreds (future blog post, i'm sure). i don't want an agent. i'm happy with self-publishing —lots of control and no deadlines. i don't use capitals on my blog because i'm trying to overcome the grammar snob thing. i'm not outgoing but do like to have meaningful one-on-one conversations. ask me over for tea and cookies and i'll listen to you for hours. if that won't work, send me an email.
sometimes i blog about writing, sometimes about life. i've been blogging about my moving to Montana adventure on my Cowgirl at Heart blog. sometimes i talk too much about my baby Eldala. looking at this bio, apparently i talk too much about myself.
i'm a Christian, so my posts have a bent in that direction but i hope i don't come across as preachy. my intent is to share my heart, not to push anyone in any direction. we're all on a journey and i'm ok with wherever that takes people. this is the journey i'm on. wherever you are on yours, i hope you find something encouraging here.
totally useless trivia:
§ i was once a nun. ----
ok, it was local production of The Sound of Music and i was one of the nuns in the chorus.) after that, i couldn't watch The Sound of Music for years. the song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" still rattles around in my head sometimes.
§ i went to Russia twice in the span of 3 weeks - once to see my lovely daughter in the orphanage, and once to go get her.
§ trying to read Russian makes my head hurt.
§ in 2000, my husband and i, and some of our family, rafted the Grand Canyon. i would love to go back sometime.
§ when i'm nervous and/or around new people, i make jokes.
§ if you've gotten this far, you may have started to think i like to talk about myself. i don't. i try to get people to talk about themselves.
§ i like to talk about my book even less, yet i want people to buy it. i'm weird. i know.
§ after living in the Phoenix area for almost 20 years, and living in the same house for 17 years, we moved to Butte, MT. currently we're in a rental house in town, but sometime next year, we'll move into a house we're having built 20 minutes outside of town. i'm going a little crazy.
§ not having written for months now is driving me crazier.
§ in my lifetime, i've owned hamsters, cats, dogs, chickens, and a goat. who knows what else i'll own in Montana. horses? cow? pig? snake?
if all of that wasn't enough and you're dying for more, you can entertain yourself with these links:
February Grace interviews me
Christine Danek interviews me
Brandi Kosiner interviews me
i interview myself
why i don't capitalize on my blog
my writing journey in brief
get to know me through my first novel
random things about me
you can also get to know me through some of the blogging awards i've received.
