I was born and raised in Mississippi so storytelling comes as naturally to me as complaining about the humidity. My earliest efforts at crafting tales involved talking into tape recorders for hours on end. Then as a teen, I moved on to lovesick poems and extremely melodramatic short stories. But it took moving out of the South—straight to Southern California—to truly appreciate the literary legacy that had been bequeathed to me.

Except for brief stints in two restaurants and one motorcycle shop, I’ve kept myself in rent and cute shoes writing everything from news features and recipes to blog posts and countless ad campaigns. Apart from paid gigs, I’ve written in most mediums from personal essays and short stories to my debut novel which is forthcoming (although when and from whom are yet to be determined).

My favorite writing contains humor tempered with elements of pathos, and that’s what I’m continually trying to capture on the page. I want readers to laugh, but I also want them to think, feel, and possibly cry. I enjoy examining fraught relationships, dislike using dialog tags other than “said,” and believe that my strength lies in snappy dialogue. And damn is it ever hard to write about writing…

After a decade in the LA area, I moved to Seattle, which I’ve called home for 20-plus years. I still haven’t fully assimilated as I prefer dresses and ruffles to fleece and flannel and am not a coffee drinker, sportsball fan, or hiker. But I do like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, so Seattle does make some sense.

When I’m not writing, I enjoy solo travel in Europe, cross-country road trips in my MINI Cooper, looking for vintage linens and fancy glassware at estate sales, participating in book clubs (three at the moment), and building community through homemade sweets at my Little Free Bakery. About my “food museum,” the less said, the better.