I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD and still live here with my awesome husband and our four large cats. I have two wonderful parents and approximately two brothers and four sisters. When I'm not writing, I like to read, run, take long baths, and avoid cleaning my house. If I could have anything in the world, it would be a Corvette.

I received my BA degree in English from the University of Maryland, College Park, where I fondly remember eating lots of bagels and doing the crossword puzzle during class.

I've only ever wanted to be a writer, but somehow I've also been a cashier, salad bar clerk, relay operator for the deaf, housecleaner, and legal word processor. Some of these jobs produced better writing material than others. I currently work from home as a medical transcriber and occasional pet sitter. This means I spend a lot of time in my pajamas.

I am always a vegetarian and occasionally vegan. People love going out to eat with me.

Here are some of my favorite things:

Music: The Killers, Gaslight Anthem, Counting Crows,

TV: The Office, Bones, Friday Night Lights, Modern Family, Doctor Who

Movies: Casablanca, Kill Bill, Lolita, Wedding Crashers, Cannibal! The Musical, The Big Lebowski

Food: Pizza, potatoes, rice, smoothies.

Fruit: Pineapple, bananas.

Vegetables: Broccoli, green beans, tomatoes.

Restaurant: Pizza John's

All Time Top Ten Favorite Books:
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Favorite YA:
How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
The Possibility of Fireflies by Dominique Paul
Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
almost anything by Elizabeth Scott