About Me

Unveiling the Writer

My passion for writing became evident at an early age. Whether it was poetry, fiction or fanfiction, I was eager to express myself. My earliest fanfictions were inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I began writing them in 2001 when I was 12 years old. At that time, I wrote my stories out on paper and would pass them out to my friends at school to read. The praise I received from my friends inspired me to share my work with the broader world. In 2005, I posted my first story on fanfiction.net. It and the other fics on that account remain today. I continued posting stories there until 2012. I was still writing for Buffy, but branched out to other fandoms like Degrassi, South of Nowhere, Harry Potter & Pretty Little Liars. I also began uploading poetry & original fiction to my FictionPress account from 2005-2009. For several years I shared my stories in various online forums dedicated to different WLW (women loving women) based groups, full of people who loved all the same ships I did. Most notably, I developed a following on Livejournal for a time as I began to experiment with using different sites to house my works. In 2012, I received an invite to the elusive Archive Of Our Own, and I never looked back. I continue to post regularly to AO3 and this year, at the suggestion of my artist girlfriend, decided to start taking commissions.

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While in high school, I attended Washington State Community College, where I studied young adult education. At that point, I'd settled on becoming a high school English teacher, but it became apparent throughout my field experience that discipline was not something I felt comfortable with and I had to reassess. My love for writing and for reading never stopped. In my time at WSCC, I took a creative writing class with a professor I am grateful to be able to call a friend today. That writing class changed me and my writing forever. After graduating with my associate's degree, I continued my education at Marietta College, where I majored in English. I was surrounded with inspiring professors, writing papers examining classic literature through a queer lens, culminating in my capstone paper about "Twelfth Night" being Shakespeare's "gayest play." I graduated with my bachelor's in 2012, still uncertain what I wanted to do. I continued writing and to my surprise, became rather well known as one of the first fic writers for the Pitch Perfect fandom. I even got the honor of providing the last name for one of the characters, Chloe. I had been interacting with the screenwriter, Kay Cannon, and told her as a writer I wanted to know Chloe's surname. She allowed me to pick from a list of Arnsbarger, Kardashian and Beale. Well, if you are or were in that fandom, you know how that turned out. I eventually lost my passion for the movies as the blatant queerbaiting became evident and began writing for other fandoms. 

Years later, after the unexpected death of my father, I decided to go back to school. I bought a house and moved, applying to the graduate program at Ohio University. I didn't know what to expect, having been out of school for so long. When I didn't get in, I was devastated. I was encouraged to apply again, because the program chooses very few candidates each year. Instead, I continued to work and soul search about what I really wanted. I settled on social work because I wanted to help children and began my journey toward a second bachelor's degree. To  my amusement, I was told I had to take a junior level English course, despite having already received an English degree. My professor in that class, which was actually about comic book superheroes, told me "I could've taught the class" and begged me to enter the grad program after spending half the class helping my classmates with their essays. I've considered it and maybe it is something I can do in the future, but for now, after graduating in 2019, I am working in the field of child welfare and continuing my work as a writer online. I am even working on my first novel about a lesbian werewolf, who just so happens to be a detective.

I am grateful for the opportunities I've received and for the countless strangers who have left kudos and kind comments on my stories. It's something I started doing for fun, but as I realize there is interest in creating stories for people, I want to be able to do that, too. I have a few commissions under my belt and I'm ready for more.