The lovely folks in the real world know me as a wildlife scientist with a penchant for coyote scat. Strangers know me as a dragon lady who occasionally shares YouTube parodies. However you know me, or don't know me, welcome!
When I was small, I wanted to write books.Not just any books. Animal books. Through most of elementary school I had an aversion to fiction. All my library check-outs came from the science section, chiefly in wildlife biology. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon Phyllis Reynold’s Naylor’s The Grand Escape that I realized animal stories went beyond the scope of picture books. Mice wielded swords for teenagers, and even grownups could be invited into rabbit warrens. Thus began my love affair with stories and my desire to write one of my own.
The idea of Nyra came to me when I was eleven, having spent a year inventing a human-less world of dragons. I imagined a little red one, a fire breather, swimming across the blue carpet of my bedroom. She flew from one wall to the other, desperate to reach an old ally who could free her enslaved people. The idea was tiny, but it stuck. Through the years it blossomed, and I vowed to write it when I grew up. Grow up I did, but never from the story. I started writing it at age twenty and finished four years later. Today I’m a crotchety 30-something living in Portland. In 2014 I completed my master's in Ecology and Sustainability at Cal State Stanislaus, where I studied coyote diet and its implications in agriculture, ranching, population control, etc. In addition to wildlife, I have a strong interest in sustainable energy and climate change science. In my spare time I enjoy drawing, theater, reading, cooking, fitness, and if I can muster the self-esteem, writing. The Waters of Nyra , both Volumes I and II, are my first novels. I'll be the last to tell you that they're good, but I can attest that they exist. One day I hope to pen another story, dragon-themed or otherwise. |
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