About me

Death first intrigued me as a six-year-old, when I sat on the floor writing and illustrating my first story—the events of September 11th. Earlier that day, the teacher had turned the TV on, and I witnessed people falling from the Twin Towers. That night, to process the images I suppose, I decided to draw a picture of stick figures falling from the sky. The caption read, “People died.”

Fortunately, I grew a little less creepy in my teenage years and contemplated a career as a funeral director. I didn’t know anyone in the field, but I was still drawn to it, starry-eyed and ambitious. I even began writing a YA story about a girl who became enthralled with this mysterious boy, who happened to be the son of a funeral director. It was pretty cliché but it ate up a lot of my time.

After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in English, I got a job at a funeral home. It was everything I wanted it to be, and I fit right in, but I was not about to head off to mortuary school. The process of embalming was incredibly invasive and not for those with a low gross-out factor (me). And then there was the stench of a decomp (or badly decomposing body), which was something I knew I’d never grow accustomed to. But beyond that, I have a fixation with death that was not healthy to surround myself with.

The life of a funeral director was not for me.

The horrifying and beautiful truths surrounding death and dying still fascinate me, while the emotions left for the grieving inspire me. I am intrigued by the monumental change that something as natural as death can bring, and the relationship we share with death and with each other.

I write literary fiction about the lives that death touches. It’s not macabre, it’s just honest.

Actual About me stuff:

Almost all of my socks are Halloween themed, which is my favorite holiday. On the eve of my wedding, I watched the Rob Zombie version of Halloween because movies like that comfort my anxious mind. I have two dogs and two cats and an incredibly full vacuum cleaner. French fries are acceptable always. Sometimes I paint landscapes. I’m non-binary, and coming out was quite scary but completely gratifying.