So, I have a blog.

I've finally been sucked into the blog craze, at the suggestion and urging of friends, and by my love of reading other's blogs. (Which are far more interesting than this one will be, you should know.) But, for what it's worth, here's a little about me to start you out with.

I'm a teen writer, published in a few anthologies and still working toward the Big Bite. I'm also a big-time history buff and have a thing for torturing myself with hundreds of hours of research, so I write historical YA. My first novel is set in World War II Poland and follows two girls through the war from the invasion in 1939 to the so-called "liberation" by the Soviets. It's almost finished, at about twice the length it should be, but I'm hoping to fix that problem with the second draft.

My love of writing goes back as far as I can remember. My mother reports me demanding silence as a two-year-old and announcing "I want to write, I NEED to write!" while scribbling with crayons. As a six and seven-year-old, I wrote long, tedious stories about everyday life and the fairy worlds of my stuffed animals. My interests and abilities evolved slowly from there.

I was eleven when I conceived the basics of my first novel/current work in progress. My original version is beyond embarrassing, buried until a more convenient date when I need it to demonstrate how bad I started out. I've worked steadily on the novel since then, for a total of almost eight years now, including my pause for a two or three year research binge. Now it's finally approaching the kind of book I want it to be.

My purpose for this blog? Obligating myself to do more writing, of course, and providing myself with a good opportunity for procrastination. Which will include discussing any aspect of writing I happen to be thinking of or reading about, or anything else in the writing world. I'll also be posting excerpts of my work, or fascinating bits of history from my research. Of course, in the end, I don't really know what this blog will turn into, but that's the general idea.

Thanks for reading!