My Story

I fell in love with reading in the second grade. Not long after that, I fell in love with writing. Writing was an escape for me, a place where anything was possible. I wrote constantly, filling notebooks with fantastical stories about fairies and dragons and mermaids, tales of ordinary kids like me discovering magical worlds. Back then, I knew exactly what I wanted to be: an author. My biggest dream (other than turning into a mermaid) was to someday see my own book on a shelf. I can remember going to my public library one day, where I saw a poster calling for authors to come in and do book signings. I automatically thought, “That could be me!”

In fourth grade, I submitted a story to a writing contest and won. The prize was an oversized T-shirt, but what I was much more excited about was the chance to read my story aloud at the local bookstore. After my five minutes of fame, I went on to write more stories. I also wrote plays, acting them out with friends at my elementary school library. In high school, I wrote a play that was performed onstage at my school’s DramaFest.

I studied Creative Writing in college. I took classes on classic literature and wrote short stories, but it felt like there was something missing. For some reason, writing didn’t feel as fun anymore. During my last year of college, I decided to take a class in Children’s Literature. It was there, while reading books for kids, that I realized what had been missing from my writing: magic. I thought back to the stories I wrote as a kid, stories filled with whimsy and adventure, stories where anything was possible. I knew then what I wanted to write: books for kids.

After graduating from college, I got a job at a middle school library and I started working on my first book: a middle grade fantasy called SUMMER ADRIFT. It took six years of writing (and rewriting), but in the end, I had a book I was proud to call my own.