I’m a writer long on tenacity. I’ve made every mistake that new writers make and pushed through it, working my butt off to become the writer I want to be.
Who is that?
No writer’s stories speak to everyone, but I want to be the writer whose stories are tuned to readers. I want to always ask, “What would I as the reader want to find outnext?” Not, “What do I as the writer think the reader needs to know?”
I want my stories to unfold the same way petals do, so that each revelation into character comes with surprise and beauty. Because stories are layers. Which isn’t something you might see as a reader, but something you would feel. As writers, it’s our job to know how these layers fit together to make a whole that feels right.
I intend to continue diving deep into the craft of telling stories, so that each one gets better than the last. There’s nothing that gives me joy like feeling that a scene or a section is working. More than that, I want to touch minds with readers. This life is about making connections with other people, and stories are a way to do that on a deeper level. Across time and distance.
In the other parts of my life . . . I live on a farm in northern Vermont with my husband and three nearly-grown children, and a bunch of apple trees and animals. The thing we grow best is grass.
I studied plant biology and molecular genetics in school and for years I worked as a vegetable breeder, developing new varieties. Now I work as a scientific curator, reading primary literature for the Candida Genome Database.
Some days I wish I’d put my earlier years into writing fiction. Then I recall sitting at one of those massive oak library tables and trying to write a story. In the pit of my stomach I knew I wasn’t ready. That I had to live more before I’d have anything to say. And the older I get, the more I don’t want to talk about my own life but instead imagine the lives of others, trying to humbly step into other shoes and see what they’re like.
So here I am now, a late bloomer among writers. I take comfort, though, in something we gardeners have seen for ourselves–how sometimes the last to ripen are the ones worth waiting for.
Thanks for visiting my site!
P.S. these peppers were developed in my vegetable breeding program.
