Photographer, writer and part-time vagabond. An Ohio State University alumnus with a B.A. in English & Creative Writing. It was here in the Spring of 2013, just weeks after spine surgery and wearing an oh-so-flattering back brace, that I met Katie sitting in the back row of a Literature class. Little did I know, that young lady was going to become my best friend, “sister by choice”, writer tribe, and travel buddy.
Born & raised on the sunny beaches of Southern California to hippie parents, I’m a cacophony of contradictions. I started out the middle of 3 children but by the end of my teens I had morphed into the middle of 5. Still the only redhead in the bunch, a badge I haven’t always worn with pride. My sass, on the other hand, has been my longtime bosom buddy and sarcasm has always dripped from my quick wit. You have to be a bit of fire and hurricane to stand out…ask any middle child and they will agree.
An ambivert through and through, I’m outgoing but shy, loud and very quiet, open and honest yet very private, kind but have been known to have a sharp tongue. I speak my mind and don’t mince words. I’ve been called annoyingly happy more than once in my life, but I assure you, it is a choice I make every day to celebrate possibility instead of mourn what was or isn’t.
I have lived in Ohio for the last 13 years and bought a home on over 10 acres in 2019. I am surrounded by trees and the various sounds and scents of nature, which makes for a peaceful escape that inspires many story ideas but also carries a lot of distractions. (I have 3 dogs and 22 chickens.)
In my “down time” I am usually parked at my dining room table or in my office with my laptop, ice water, and either coffee or tea (sometimes both) writing or losing myself in research, reading or watching documentaries, super hero movies, comedies, action/adventures or historical dramas. That is, if I’m not chasing my 3 dogs around the yard, lovingly annoying my husband, laughing as much as I can or having a “one-woman concert” in my kitchen and baking.
I find inspiration to write in nature, architecture, and my own personal history. It is always my goal to take the uncomfortable, heart-wrenching, soul-crushing, and devastating truths of the human experience and weave them with the uplifting, happy-tear-inducing, laughter-filled, and spirit-healing hopefulness that infects and wills us to press on. When photographing the world around me, I love to play with how the light can change an image, create an emotion, and echo a memory. For me, photography and writing are equally vital to my self-expression.
I’ve had the privilege to live overseas and travel much of my life, so as I near the next chapter of my personal story, I am excited to spread my wings a bit and allow my gypsy soul and hippie heart lead me towards my aspirations.
I find it hard at times to find the words to express the need, the compulsion, the calling to just go. I *have* to see the world, all of it. The grand, breathtaking places and the understated, underappreciated, heartbreaking places. I’m most at peace when I’m out in the thick of it, experiencing the diversity of this great earth and all of creation. Then I’m home again, and the peace and warmth that only home can hold, wraps me in safe, calm belonging. Until I grow restless again and need to wander.
FAVORITES: CURRENTLY
Go-To Drink(s):
Hot Tea
Black coffee (sometimes I add a little sugar free flavoring)
Whisky, Rum, Wine
Books:
Outlander Series, The Great Gatsby, Trimalchio, Fat Girl Walking, The Stars of Ballymenone, Much Ado About Nothing, Pride & Prejudice, A Rose for Emily (short stories can count right?), The Hiding Place, Through the Looking Glass, Secret Garden, Screwtape Letters, Peter Pan, just to name a few.
Subjects:
Celtic, German & Viking Folklore/ Legends, Japanese culture, history & Art, Medieval History, WWII, Holocaust & Civil War history, Art, Music, Theater, Homeopathic Health (Herbs, Oils).
Authors:
Diana Gabaldon, Nora Roberts, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, Ray Badbury, C.S. Lewis, Nikita Gill, A.J. Hackwith, Emily Snow, Mark Twain, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker
What Do You Enjoy Most About Writing?
The pull of the page and the near compulsion to put on paper the ideas and stories that infect my mind. Getting lost in the story that seems to pour out of its own volition, learning what happens next just as the reader would. It isn’t a choice for me to write or not, it is something I feel I have to do.
What Do You Look Forward to Most in Upcoming & Current Adventures?
To finally see and touch the places that I have dreamed of. A vagabond with intense wanderlust and fernweh, I am looking forward to finding more of myself while getting lost in the adventure.
The Voyagers' Pen 