A Lifelong Love Affair with Words

As a kid, I wrote stories and poetry basically from the time I could form letters. I was first published in second grade, when my neighbor, a kind old man I knew as Mr. Conway, had several of my poems printed in the community newspaper. 

I fear that writing has been a lover I've too often taken for granted. After a brief stint as a journalism major, I switched to creative writing, and ended up with both a BA and an MA in this field, with an emphasis in poetry. However,  it took me 13 years because I kept changing my major. (It also turned me off to academic writing and to pursuing publication for a long time.)  

In 2009, after seeing the movie Julie & Julia, I was inspired to start a blog, called The Whole Blooming World, and this brought me home to writing in a new and expansive way. It gave me the confidence to call myself A Writer, and I landed a a weekly column profiling local businesses for The Taos News for a couple of years. I also had a second blog called Home Sweet Hive, about my time living off grid. 

I've been published here and there over the past few years through contests and such but have never published a book. I'm currently writing a novel of speculative fiction based on a short story submission for the final round of the 2023 NYC Midnight 500 Word Challenge. I'm also researching and planning a historical novel that's been in my head for two decades.

I find the urge to share personal essays compelling, so I've chosen Medium as my, well, medium for that. I occasionally post micro-essays on Instagram. I also write a collage-and-divination-oriented newsletter, The Cosmic Glue.