Episode One...Get to know your Blogger!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! Today's entry is to tell you about...well...me! ;)

As you have already probably read, I am a Fantasy/Science Fiction writer and I've created this blog for my current and future fans (ya like how I'm optimistic like that?) and plan to use this blog to talk about my writing process; sucesses and failures.

Let us go back a "few" years...(okay, its a lot of years but humor me will you?) When I was a little girl my father would read to me before bed. He tended to read things a hair above my age level yet not above my imagination level. He loved the Madeline books when I was very young and then we moved on to E.B. White books (ie: "Charlotte's Web") and then C.S. Lewis (ie: "The Narnia Chronicles"). I must've made that poor man read "Voyages of the Dawn Treador" to me three times! (Needless to say I'm super excited for the next Narnia movie to come out as it is THIS book that's next on the list!) He read to me "A Wrinkle In Time" and "Alpha Centauri"... and before I knew it, I was falling for Fantasy and Science Fiction.

When I started reading for myself it was Nancy Drew all the way! Match that with how my dad loved to sit with me and watch the PBS TV shows "Mystery" and "Masterpiece Theater" and you find where my I love for mystery novels comes from. So it doesn't surprise me that what I write is a mix of the two; stories that hold a mystery to untangle so that the main characters, that are set in a realistic fantasy world, can...well...save the world! :)

One of my readers once asked me, "Do you hate this character? Why do you put him through all this?" I am of the same belief as one of my favorite authors, Cassandra Clare. If I don't torture my characters and my readers in the process, I'm just not doing my job. Look, here's how I see it...a flawed person is an interesting person...both in real life and in stories. A "perfect" person who has experienced nothing difficult in their life or has no quirks that make them who they are...personally bore me. Real people, who've gone through hell and have flaws are interesting and people can relate to them. I feel the this way on both my heros and my villians. Speaking of villians...I am of the same believe as another idol of mine, Joss Whedon. Villians don't see themselves as villians. They feel very justified in what they do. They may be crazy but to them, they are perfectly sane and our hero's are in need of mental help. :) Justification for action is the driving force on that choice...hell, for many if not all of my choices.

So, as many usually ask, I will list some of my current top favorite writers...the people who inspire me to be better. They would be:

Cassandra Clare
J.K. Rowling
Cate Tiernan
Joss Whedon
P.C. & Kristen Cast
John Flanagan
L.J. Smith
Christopher Pike

...and the list could go on and on...but we'll stop there for now...adding more later. :)

So, now that my background is layed out for you I feel I can move forward with what I feel promises to be a fun blog about my experiences as a writer...living in NYC!