About the Author
I was born April 28, 1970, in Chicago, IL. I lived in the Chicago suburbs until my twelfth birthday, when we moved to Wisconsin. I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and majored in molecular biology, planning to become a geneticist. But after a bad experience working in a lab, I got turned off of science for a while. So I added an English major and went to graduate school at Miami University in Ohio, where I taught technical writing to undergraduates and earned a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication degree. I planned to become a science writer, but after a science writing internship with the National Cancer Institute's Press Office and a stint as a technical writer back in Wisconsin, I decided I didn't like that either. I worked for a short time as a copyeditor for a couple of local newspapers, but I found myself drawn back into science. I've been a lab technician since 1997 and started a new job as an Assistant Scientist for an enzyme-producing company in the Chicago area June 17, 2002. I think I finally found a good balance in my life by performing science by day and writing at night.
I learned to read when I was three and quickly became an avid bookworm. I read everything I could lay my hands on, but I always enjoyed fantasies such as the Oz books and science fiction such as Andre Norton's books. I wrote a couple of awful short stories when I was in middle school, but in high school I switched to poetry. (Some of my poetry has been published in the e-zine Rational Magic.) I wrote my first novel while I was in graduate school, about a world where inhabitants voluntarily give up speaking to acquire magic. It was poorly written, since I had very little experience writing fiction at that point, and it's probably best that the story is now lost on obsolete computer disks. After that, I didn't write for a couple of years until I became a die-hard Beatles fan.
What do the Beatles have to do with writing science fiction and fantasy? Plenty, if you're me. I'd always enjoyed their music, but after watching the Anthology in 1995 and listening to "Free as a Bird," I became hooked. Learning about the Beatles and their four-fold synergy gave me the inspiration to create the Season Lords, a group of women with individual magical talents who can link with each other to pool their magic for even greater effect. I've also written a few fanfiction stories about the Beatles which were published in Rooftop Sessions, a monthly Beatles fanfiction e-zine.
When not working or writing, I participate in the Discussion Forum at Beatlelinks (my user name is SF4-EVER, and I have the honor/responsibility of moderating the news and book forums); attend science fiction/fantasy conventions; read; crochet; blog about my daily life in Dual Citizenship in Writing and Mundania and writing in Up from Slush; travel with Oscar; and oh yeah, spend some time with my husband, Eugene Almazan, a veterinarian. See below for photos of us. We got married on September 10, 2005 and are expecting our first child in June 2007.
Cutting the cake at our wedding.
Having tea in London, September 2006
At the Grand Canyon, February 2007.