Bio:

"Although I was voted “most likely to end up in jail” in high school, I decided to get an M.A. and teach Lit and Gender Studies to college students across the country. Along the way, I’ve been unable to resist trying new things—including working an archeological dig, slinging drinks at a biker bar, and getting fabulous tattoos.
I call all of this “research” for my writing. To fill my craving for new experiences, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Southern California, and I plan to keep roaming with my family as widely and as often as possible. This year, I think, I’m living in Virginia."

Age: 36
Lives: DC
Pets: 4 (Cat, 2 Dogs, and Turtle)
History: Her high school graduating class awarded her the title of "most likely to end up in jail" But she instead got a M.A. and taught college for several years before students, friends and family convinced her to begin writing.

Her first novel (written while still teaching) was a Middle-Grade novel and received several rejections. After reviewing her rejection notes, she realized that she had been reigning back on the darker parts of the novel, and this had crippled the text. She decided to start a new novel, and go with her instincts ("obey Ms. Muse") and thus Wicked Lovely was born. With a working title of "Finding the Summer Queen" she worked on the text while mothering and teaching.

Her writing process includes walking around cities like the one that Wicked Lovely is set in and taking pictures, wandering around to other interesting places, going to museums, meditating and exercising. And then sitting down and writing/revising in 10-14 hour chunks of time. She also reads the text before bed, so that the answers would "float to the top"

"Since I write third person with multiple POV, my plot is a result of putting the characters in a box and shaking them up. "

Once Wicked Lovely was finished (Sept-Dec) she began to send out queries again. After a couple requests and a small stack of rejections, she was finally offered representation by one of her top picks- Rachel Vater. Within a few short months, HarperCollins US and UK had jointly acquired her novel and the revision process began. During this time, she also worked on her next novel (Ink Exchange) and went back to revise her first novel.

Revisions were done alongside moving to DC.

Favorite Comfort Food:
"Is caffeine a food? There's so many ways to have it-- shots of espresso, coffee with mint, white mocha, hot tea, sweet tea, flavored tea with honey . . . Ooh, and coffee flavored desserts, coffee with liqueur"

Five Strangest Habits:
"1. I check on my kids every night. No, I mean, I check to make sure they're still here and umm breathing. Read too much on SIDS? Too many terrible news stories? I don't know, but I check every night.
2. Tattoos--I'm obsessed with them. I love getting them, thinking about getting them, seeing them, watching Discovery Channel shows on them. (Unless you see me at the beach, you'd never know I have tattoos.)
3. Unless I'm in a very good mood, I hate answering the phone. Sometimes even then I don't often answer it. Caller ID and voicemail are my friend.
4. I love the beach and marine mammals, but hate to go in to the ocean. (Ugh, strands of kelp around my ankles in the Pacific or jellyfish in the Atlantic.)
5. Quizzes, tests, any of those sorts of things amuse me far too much. I take them (and don't post the results) b/c I like the test taking process."