Quote of the Moment:

Quote of the Moment: Who said this, and why? "I'm coming to realize EVERYONE can eat me."

My Backstory


Following is some personal information about my life, writings and authors who have influenced me. There are a lot of "I"s and "my"s in this self-absorbed monologue, but since this is my blog, I'm fine with it. ;-)

I grew up in southern California, with desert chaparral on one side and ocean on the other, like living between two worlds. The daughter of a scientist and an artist, the imagery of different "furry" worlds found its way into my childhood writings and continues today. My fantasy series The Animal Guild combines the rich "reality" of the California geography with the fantasy of animals living in that geography in secret societies, having adventures that stray into the realm of magic.

I started writing The Animal Guild Series when I was thirteen years old, and the plots have borne many revisions over the years (I won't say how many years, but the key word is "many"). The first ten books in the series—The Animal Guild, Monsters in the Territory, The Marrhob War, The Nhorn, Outcasts, The Hikum, Seven Secrets in the Upper Attic, The Rogan Treasures, Sev's Vision and The Anwinn Ghost —are available, plus three stories that take place between certain books: Randa's Day, Kiah's Day and Fist's Day. You'll find the precise order on the My Books page.

While The Animal Guild is a self-contained book, the trio of Monsters in the Territory, The Marrhob War and The Nhorn are a trilogy within the series, complete with cliff-hanger endings. The plot in these books veers toward the fantastic, but the crux is the bond between the two main characters, Corto (a dog) and Renard (a fox), their loyalty to their friends, their sacrifices, their teamwork, and their tolerance toward those who are different.

Seven Secrets in the Upper Attic is about a group of (human) kids involved in adventure and magic, and will segue into the Animal Guild world in some weird and intriguing ways. It can be read as a stand-alone, but a couple of the references will make more sense if it is read after the first six books in the series.

Some of the many authors who have inspired and influenced me include J.R.R. Tolkien, Patricia McKillip, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Carol Kendall, Rudyard Kipling, Harper Lee, Fritz Leiber, Stanisław Lem, Hugh Lofting, Alexei Panshin, Terry Pratchett, Jules Verne, Roger Zelazny, and Richard Adams.

I remember reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and being blown away by the rich complexity of the world that he created. I had to wait my turn to read The Lord of the Rings (we had only one copy, and my older brother got to read it first), and that pretty much set me on the fantasy literature path. A few years later, I read Richard Adams' Watership Down; this work impressed me with its animal characters who base their adventures in the reality of the English countryside, but Adams mixes in the magic of visions and the gods. My own animal characters were already involved in their adventures, but Adams' themes of friendship and sacrifice encouraged me to continue my writing. We'll see how long I can keep going!

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