I was born and raised in the Midwest (Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis), which means I will eat anything fried, barbecued, or on a stick. I attended law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where I learned that not only is it entirely possible for a pothole to be as big as your entire car,  but it can and will snow two feet in April. I also learned things about the law.

Now a practicing attorney in the Atlanta, Georgia area, I feel fortunate to be able to use my law degree to provide legal services to  veterans pursuing work with the federal government. It’s challenging and discouraging at times (after all, I deal with the government), but also interesting and rewarding.

My husband Scott and I are blessed to have two beautiful children, Brooke and Wade. Brooke loves anything creative and will one day create sculptures of her feelings; Wade builds mansions out of Legos. They’re not even two years apart in age, so 80% of the time they are the best of friends and 20% of the time they are intent on murdering each another. In general, the two are like puppies–very cute, boundless energy, and impressively destructive.

Our family does not, however, have any real puppies, and is collecting cats. The count right now is four, and may be more by the time you reach the end of this sentence.

On the writing front, I have been making up stories since the third grade, which is about as long as I’ve wanted to be a writer. After law school, I started writing books in the middle grade genre, and landed my first literary agent four years later. After being on submission (when your agent pitches your book to publishers, and they read it and decide if they want to buy it) for almost a decade with only one sale to a traditional publisher (across three total agents and something like eight books, five of which were pitched), I took a chance and submitted my first foray into adult fiction (a dark comedy thriller/mystery) to a publisher that allowed un-agented submissions. An assistant pulled Neighborhood Watch off the slush pile and it became one of approximately twelve books Turner Publishing publishes each year via Keylight Books (its imprint) out of thousands of submissions. So, for once, I’m an anomaly on the right side of things!