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| Melbourne, FL Zombie Walk 2012. I'm the alive one. |
I live in Florida with my husband and two children. The Floridian environment is a feast for the senses. From flamingos to almost-daily rainbows to afternoon thunderstorms, I always find something that sparks my creative engine. After spending most of my adult life in too-cold weather, mainly on the shores of Lake Erie, I don't mind the heat. Tropical storms and hurricanes have nothing on lake effect snow. And so far, we've been pretty lucky in that regard. Florida does, however, have its quirks. There seems to be an obscenely disproportionate amount of man-sandwich advertising here. As well, in my neighborhood at least, retirees have found it acceptable
to substitute their cars for pimped-out golf carts. Here is an example:
Retirees do have a sub-culture. I am mainly envious of them, but many times it reminds me of the Seinfeld episodes when Jerry's parents retire to Florida. And everyone who lives in Florida is from New York or New Jersey . . . except us.
We also have a variety of water fowl which occasionally
surprises us. Take, for instance, Sandhill Cranes. They are large, loud, and will follow you to your front door in search of food. If you've never seen or heard Sandhill Cranes, which are about chest-high in height, check this out:
While I love animals, we are currently pet-free. Apparently I was trying to keep the fish too clean.
They didn't seem to like that. Sniff.
For my day job, I am an instructor of English at a local
community college. Per
Ratemyprofessors.com, I do a fairly good job even if I talk about sex too
much. What can I say? All writing ends in either sex or death . . .
or both if you’re having fun. I love teaching, and I love my students. I hope they are having as much fun as I am. I am currently teaching a "Vampires in Literature" class; we are having great fun figuring out how we went from Slavic mages with their magical waters of life and death to Edward Cullen. In my
spare time, which usually occurs sometime between 10pm and 3am, I am writing.
I have a wide variety of favorite writers from classics like
Shakespeare, Byron, and Hawthorne to more modern writers like the late Marion
Zimmer Bradley. Everyone should read Bradley’s
The Mists of Avalon. Everyone. Since Bradley’s death, I don’t even see the
book stocked on the shelf anymore and it makes me sad. I am also reading everything Steampunk I can
get my hands on. Got Steampunk? Send it to me.
I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead (as is evident on my
blog) and was pretty obsessed with Lost.
I miss Lost. Aside from the
X-files, Lost has to be the single greatest TV show in history—except the last
ten minutes. Bleck. Be glad Lost is over. You wouldn’t like me in my Lost fever. I also miss grunge. Musically, I am stuck in the 90s. Give me Tori Amos in her heyday and Nirvana
any day. I am also a Starbucks addict and
a really nice roller-ball pen makes me smile.
Back in the day, in the land of Everquest, I was once known as Ablyn
Oakseeker. And a long, long time about I
wrote story-boards for MUDS.
I have always written.
I wrote my first play when I was in 6th grade about a lounge
singer named Emerald Sky. When I was
twelve I started writing a novel set in the 1920s. The protagonist, her lover lost to the war,
was a struggle actress being raised by a conservative grandmother. Wow, what a serious twelve year old. I struggled for many years at being a “real”
writer and have finally decided I get to define what that means. I wrote The Harvesting as a “fun” zombie romp
in complete rebellion of all my previous writing. I made myself have fun. And I did.
Ask me to tell you the story about the bubbles.
If you would like to chat with me, email me!
Enjoy the show.
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