Just going to put it all out there..

Because why not? With the Internets being the way they are today, you could pretty much Google my name and find out at least 90% of what I'm about to tell you anyway.

I know hiding somewhere in the depths of my family's "Oh we just can't throw this away" pile lies a stack of writing that is proof positive of my early inclination towards putting words on paper. I was not a very articulate child (and as an adult, my debate style is still very much, "Oh yeah? Well... oh yeah?!", using the angry Italian-American inflection that my father is notorious for).

I relied on writing to put my thoughts into words, and wrote voluminously in journals. When I realized that it was easy to make my journal entries more... interesting by adding some fictional flavor to them, I became utterly lost in the world of writing. My grandmother still tells stories about how I would beg to go to work with her and my grandfather so that I could type stories on their typewriter. This was before I had met a computer....

Fast-forward to Spring/Summer 2009. My partner and I were taking the garbage to the dumpster one afternoon, and took a gander into the bulk garbage room. (Neighbors use the bulk garbage for items too large to fit in the dumpster, or for furniture and things that are still in good condition. We don't turn our nose up to the term "dumpster diver," we've gotten some great things from there!) Tucked away in the back corner of the room was a clear plastic bag filled with books, and I quickly attacked it. The books were in excellent condition and included, among other things, several Ellora's Cave and Harlequin novels, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Charlain Harris books, and a vintage copy of The Time Machine, one of my favorite books. What I wound up keeping filled two bankers boxes, much to my partner's chagrin. (At least as he is packing for us to move at this moment, grumbling about how he'd have two extra empty boxes if it weren't for me!)

I didn't leave the apartment for a week.

Just a small sample of the books my partner "forgot"
to pack... I just finished reading Tithe. Excellent!

I quickly became engrossed in the world of romance novels. I blew through the EC books, and scrambled to the library to fill the need to just read more. I subscribed to the Silhouette Nocturne line, signed up for the Harlequin forum, and decided I was going to start writing my own romance novel!

....So, here I am!