About Me
My art often holds hope that I need, and feel others might need, too, while much of my writing is gritty, intense, and emotional. I write about some of the harsh things teens go through . . . things that I think shouldn't be hidden. But I also write about healing, hope, and love, and finding courage and strength; I think that is especially powerful in fantasy. I write about the things I care about, things that touch me deeply. My work has been influenced by the many books I've read and absorbed over the years, and by my healing from child abuse.
My teen short story "The Healer," a paranormal suspense tale, appears in a YA anthology by Red Deer Press--The Horrors, Terrifying Tales, Book Two. "The Healer" is about a teen girl who heals people--only to find someone's using a similar power for evil. It felt wonderful to see my work in print.
Read more about my story, or read an excerpt from it, here.
I also have two non-fiction articles on self-harm and self-care that appear in the second edition of Healing the Hurt Within by Jan Sutton (ISBN: 1845280369). You can read more about the book at Amazon.com or at Jan Sutton's site. (Jan's site also lists the table of contents, and has links to where you can buy the book online for different countries.)I think it's a truly helpful, informative, and sensitively written book about self-harm.
I've always loved to write, draw, and read. I can hardly remember a time without those things. They were my survival during childhood abuse, and my journey into myself. They are such a part of myself . . . reading, writing, drawing . . . just as being a ritual abuse survivor, an incest survivor, a feminist, and a writer are all parts of who I am.
Self-hate has always been a really strong thread running through my life; I learned it through the abuse I experienced. It took me years to begin to feel some compassion and love for myself, but when I began to, it felt so good and right.
All along, I'd had voices inside me trying to tell me that I was lovable and good . . . I just had to stop to listen to them.
Sometimes I still need to remind myself that that's a good thing to do—to treat myself gently, with compassion. I know many other people struggle with this, too . . . so the affirmation cards I drew are for all of us. For everyone who needs them.
