📚 Please, tell us a bit about yourself…

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, a beautiful city nestled right up against the mountains. In addition to writing and indie publishing, I work in IT and am the mother of two little girls. I'm a child of the 80s, an unapologetic nerd, and of course, an avid reader. I’m also an old-school gamer (hefting my tower around to LAN parties) and used to build my own gaming systems. I’ve been on a lengthy hiatus while finishing my novel, though I have a few on deck to play as a personal reward for launching though, which is exciting.

​

📚 Why should I buy your SPFBO9 (Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest) entry?

Unlike most currently popular mythological books that are simply retellings, Where Madness Lies brings the Greek gods into this era. It’s a contemporary mythological thriller centered around a lonely and cursed mortuary technician who, thanks to her new friend Artemis, is pulled into a strange world of immortal ex-gods, impossibly strong assassins, mysterious cults, and ancient, devastating family secrets.

​

If you prefer thinking in mashups, it’s American Gods + The Odyssey + Bakkhai + a wee bit of Eyes Wide Shut. It has strong (yet fallible and relatable) female protagonists, a bit of horror, a hint of romance, page-turning suspense, twists you won't see coming, and a pantheon of delicious characters. So far, it’s getting great reader and editorial reviews which is quite thrilling!​

​

📚 What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?

Not counting the little book I wrote at age 8 and sold to various family members, I really got into it in the early 2000s with blogging. When a friend said she loved my writing and asked me if I’d ever considered writing a book, it gave me the push to try my hand at telling the story I’d had rolling around in my head. It took me fourteen years on and off again, (more recently, four years in earnest) to write Where Madness Lies into the world.

​

📚 Why did you choose to write fantasy?

I’ve loved reading since I was very young, and while I enjoyed many genres (and still do), fantasy and sci-fi won my heart. I grew up on stories about John Carter of Mars and began my young reading journey in earnest with the likes of Dragonriders of Pern, Sword of Shannara, and Ender's Game. While I love epic fantasy and being completely immersed in new worlds and magic systems (and I do have a list of story ideas!), contemporary fantasy has a natural pull for me as a writer and person who still longs to find magic in the mundane, or another world hidden in our own.

​

📚 Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?

It’s hard to pick, there have been so many over the years. I would say recently though I’ve really loved V.E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue especially), Alix Harrow (Ten Thousand Doors of January), Madeline Miller (Circe), and Tamsin Muir (Gideon the Ninth).

​

📚 What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?

It took me a while to find my footing as a writer. Over the last fourteen years I put the story through two disastrous NaNoWriMos (National Novel Writing Month), four styles of outlines (once I realized I needed one), three titles, several long pauses when a busy life conspired against it, a no-nonsense writing coach/developmental editor, a recognition that sporadic binge writing is just as acceptable as daily writing, and finally a year of querying, which is a rather soul-crushing and not for the faint of heart.

​

Eventually, I decided to stop banging my head (and heart) against that wall and instead take my novel’s fate into my own hands. I was excited to learn the multi-threaded ropes of indie publishing, but I found I did have to grieve the loss of that long-held dream for a bit. Ultimately though, I’m really happy with my decision, even though it’s a lot of work wearing all the literary and business owner hats. I actually just randomly received an email rejection from a literary agent I’d queried over 18 months ago (!), and it felt pretty sweet to delete it with gusto and zero emotional pangs. I couldn’t be prouder of the work I’ve done for myself and for my dream, all on my own.

​​

📚 Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?

I really love Scrivener for drafting, outlining, and tracking all things story related—pictures, reviews, ISBNs, blurbs, keywords, categories, and so on. It’s so dynamic and as an organized person, I like that I can keep everything all in one place.​​

​​

📚 Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?

I’d love to quit my job, buy a beach house, and write full time to the sound of the sea and my daughters’ laughter. More realistically in the short term, I’d love to just develop a real following of readers who love my stories. I would love to make a comfortable living writing, but only time (and dozens of other factors) will tell!