a brief autobiography

I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on November 23, 1970 and there was much rejoicing throughout the land. A Princess from the start, I excelled in dumping out dresser drawers while my mother was on the telephone and began my lifelong hobby of toy collecting at an early age.

I attended The MacDuffie School for Girls from seventh to twelfth grade, graduating with honors in 1988. During those formative years I embraced pop music and pop culture and longed to become a Broadway actress. High school, of course, is the place where those childhood dreams are squashed, and in my senior year I decided instead to become a journalist.

I went on to attend Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, from which I graduated in 1992. Somewhere in the course of things I, ahem, developed a love of photography, dropped the journalism thing and majored instead in Creative Writing, in which I hold a BFA degree--just try getting a job in any professional field with that--and met every glam metal, hair band rock star who made a record during that time period. I also wrote my first novel, which was a romance about a hockey player. After giving up rock & roll, I went on to follow professional hockey for a brief time.

After discovering that I wasn’t going to find my dream job (which would be...what? I had no idea at the time) or get published anytime soon, I found employment in the wonderful world of retail sales. Eventually I escaped into a position at the Springfield Library & Museums, working in the museums, where I stayed for nearly five years. A record! Meanwhile I managed to write eight more novels, mostly horror, as my focus turned towards Anne Rice and vampire fiction. I also found an agent to help me sell my novels.

I began to take trips to New Orleans, Louisiana, home of Mrs. Rice. My mother often accompanied me. To balance the dark side, I also, after seeing "Beauty & the Beast" in the movie theater, found my interest in Walt Disney reawakened. Disney World in Florida became my other frequent travel destination. After all, it’s the only real magic left in this world.

My supervisor and very good friend Judy left the Museums in 1997 and was replaced by a vicious harridan who shall remain nameless. The job I once loved...all right...tolerated and occasionally enjoyed...became unbearable merely because of the presence of one mean-spirited, unintelligent [expletive deleted] and I knew I had to get out of there, since I was now spending most of my working hours planning the perfect murder.

Since my novels still remained unpublished, and Springfield isn’t exactly teeming with interesting employment possibilities, I decided that this was the ideal opportunity to pack my bags and move out. I debated between Orlando, Florida and New Orleans, and decided I might just get lost in Disney World and never be seen again if I went to Florida. In September of 1998 I jumped into a U-Haul and relocated to the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Living in New Orleans has been one of the most wild and interesting experiences of my life. There is nowhere else on earth like this city. You almost have to be insane to live here, because everyone is! I always thought I was a freak, but living here has shown me how frightening normal I really am. (Although I bet you’re not thinking that from the content of this autobiography!) I can be as weird as I wanna be and there’s always someone stranger standing down the street.

I worked briefly at a Bed & Breakfast when I first got to town, but boy, if I wasn’t lucky enough to find a boss worse than the one I left behind! After a most enjoyable period of unemployment, during which I experienced my first Mardi Gras...I went to 21 parades and wound up with a two foot high jar of beads...I found a position at the Disney Store, where I had sworn never to work in fear of spoiling the magic. And guess what? It didn’t spoil the magic. Now I get to help create the magic...and I’m good at it, when I can manage to forget that I’m really back in the wonderful world of retail. But, the good bit about working for Disney is that I can always transfer within the company. When it’s time to get out of New Orleans, a door will be open at Disney World for me...but who knows where I’ll end up next. After all, Anything Goes!

So currently, that’s it for me. I love my job and in my spare time am working on a screenplay. Two of my novels were published virtually, but the company folded and my agent is once more trying to get them into print. I collect Disneyana and items related to Indiana Jones, after whom my cat is named, and spend a lot of time websurfing online. You can always find me there, if you need to. See ya!

I moved back to Massachusetts from New Orleans in November of 2000 and am currently preparing for my next adventure...

"I’m like a bad penny...I always turn up." --Indiana Jones

"I have learned of the power of words, and I know that as long as I live I shall choose no other weapon." --S.P. Somtow