(picture from http://astarlite.com/heathfieldcastle/rooms.htm)

About me...

I have been writing for longer than I can remember, fairy tales for the most part. I believe in commas, style, grammar, good words, and well-drawn characters. My biggest, most unobtainable goal in life is to respark in this world a love for fairy tales.

I am crazy, loud, silly, imaginative, and clumsy, passionate about God, mermaids, and big words. I stubbornly refuse to say that my favorite magical creatures don't actually exist. I love YA fiction, even though I'm probably too old to be reading it anymore; I really enjoy the sweeping, fantastic, larger-than-life stories and characters found in fairy tales. I have never been west of Nebraska, east of Maine, or north of Montreal, and I have never crossed a time zone while in an airplane. I have been playing the piano since I was six, classical until my sophomore year of college when I decided to try my hands at jazz--which I'm not really good at, but I enjoy it too much to switch back now.

The News...

From the Sea: The massive 2009 revision has been completed and the final chapter uploaded! Feedback is, as always, much appreciated.

The Cinder Girl: Hosanna Andretti's life has been burnt to cinders. Now, with her brother fighting in a war, his wife treating her like a servant, and the prince himself beginning to notice her, Hosanna must leave the past behind and move into her future. "Cinderella." With the revision to From the Sea officially complete, I am giving this story the attention it needs to get itself written.

My Favorite...

Books: Almost anything fairy tale, especially any fairy tales by Shannon Hale or Robin McKinley. I am a huge fan of the Books of Bayern (The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born by Hale) and Rose Daughter and The Door in the Hedge, both by McKinley. I am currently building up my collection of Andrew Lang's Color Fairy Book Series, and, so far, I haven't found a story in there that I don't love (my favorites are "Beauty and the Beast," "The Heart of Ice," and "The Yellow Dwarf"). I am also a moderately-dedicated fan of the Once Upon a Time series and am particularly fond of Cameron Dokey's additions to that series (especially Golden. If you like "Rapunzel" and want a really excellent retelling, my suggestion would be to pick up Golden by Cameron Dokey.) The Tales of the Frog Princess by E.D. Baker (The Frog Princess, Dragon's Breath, Once Upon a Curse, and No Place for Magic) and most of the stories by Gail Carson Levine (in particular, Ella Enchanted, Fairest, Ever, and all of the Princess Tales) are up there, too--Prince Eadric of Upper Montevista (from The Tales of the Frog Princess, who has some influence on Prince Naveen from Disney's The Princess and the Frog) is one of two fictional characters on whom I have a serious crush. I am totally, hopelessly, profoundly obsessed with Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," and my illustrated-by-Charles-Santore version is my single most prized possession.

Though a much smaller collection, my non-fairy-tale favorite-books include: The Twilight Saga (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) by Stephenie Meyer, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (though both Alice and Narnia walk the thin line between what, for me, defines the differences between fairy tales and not-fairy-tales), A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostrand (Cyrano is the other serious fictional-character crush), Holes by Louis Sachar, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Movies: Again, almost anything fairy tale. Since starting high school, I have become more and more fond of Disney animated movies--yes, even despite the way they slaughter the stories they are trying to tell; don't even get me started on how they ruined "The Little Mermaid"...!--so, on the top of this list have to go my favorite Disney movies: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.

Disney's new movie, The Princess and the Frog, was visually very beautiful, and Tiana and Naveen were very likable, but the supporting characters (Louis and Ray particularly) were so annoying that I just couldn't get into the movie. Still, props to Disney for their first black princess AND a well-done forever-death of one of the good guys.

After the favorite animated Disney movies come the rest of my favorite movies: Titanic, Splash, Narnia (particularly The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because the dynamics between the Pevensies are much more interesting and complex in Wardrobe than they are in Prince Caspian), The Phantom of the Opera, Happy Feet, The Lord of the Rings (particularly The Fellowship of the Ring, because The Two Towers and Return of the King's battle sequences are exhausting--though all three really are great movies), Stardust, Charlotte's Web, Over the Hedge, Chocolat, The Princess Bride, Spider-Man (the original only), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and just about anything from Pixar animation (especially Toy Story and The Incredibles).

Music: Mostly soundtracks (in particular: Narnia, LotR, Stardust, Pirates, Harry Potter, and Disney). I also like piano music--particularly classical, jazz, and my cool piano renditions of movie songs--waltzes, Christmas music, Mannheim Steamroller, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the really awesome band called Born, and just about anything sans-words.

TV Shows: Pushing Daisies (a fantastic forensic fairy tale that had only two too-short seasons on ABC), Scrubs, The Simpsons, Good Eats (I love Alton Brown; he's so silly!), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (of course), and Beauty and the Beast.