My Fun Fact
The fun fact I like to use as an ice breaker - or when I was forced to say something in those traumatizing introductory circles at sleep away camp - is that I come from a family of artists and writers. My dad is a children's book author, my mom is an artist, and my grandmother, uncle, and aunt have all done children book illustrations in addition to writing picture books. Because it's so ingrained in my family, it always felt natural to write. Growing up, I spent a lot of time crafting stories and writing in my journal. It never seemed weird to me that after a Saturday morning Starbucks run with my dad as a 4th grader, I'd also return home to the family computer to work on stories. My first published work was a short story I wrote for the children's literary magazine, Stone Soup, when I was 12. When I got that first check in the mail for something like $20, I remember thinking, "I'm a real paid writer!!" and I saw mounds of money bags in my eyes. No one could ever fault me for dreaming big. Since my glory days as an ambitious 12 year old, I've never stopped writing.