I was born in Connecticut, but moved to New York when I was five, and have been struggling to get back to New England ever since.
I wrote my very first story when I was 6 years old, for a Halloween contest in my 1st grade class. I won the contest but lost recess because I refused to read the story aloud to the class; I'd scared myself with my own story. And I still hate reading stuff aloud in front of people.
Obsessive writing began at age 12. At 16, I attended New York State Summer Young Writer's Institute (read about my session here). By the time I finished high school, I had completed three novels, one of which, The Egg of the Damned, can be purchased from The Genre Mall. The other two will never again see the light of day.
I am a graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz, where I was told by my Creative Writing teacher that his job was to persuade all his students not to try and make a living through writing. He and I didn't get along.
I believe that reading is just as important to the craft of writing as the actual act of writing. I believe that stories come from people, and without strong characters, we would have no stories. Most of all, I believe that writing is work, dammit, and work that I love.
