“About Me”

When people learn that I’m a writer, they often ask me:  “When did you decide to ‘become’ a writer?”  I don’t think that I ever set out to consciously ‘become’ a writer, I just decided to explore a passion that I’ve always had, which happened to be writing.   So in a way, I awakened the sleeping writer living in my soul, and Boys, Beauty & Betrayal was born.

After a few years of dancing the ‘dual career with children’ waltz, I climbed down a few rungs from my successful perch on the corporate ladder and switched to a part-time schedule so that I could pick our daughter up from kindergarten.  Each day, I would leave my office in downtown Chicago at two thirty in the afternoon and drive the one mile to her school on Chicago’s near west side.  As I watched the children being dismissed, I wondered what types of stories the “tween” girls were reading.  One day I visited the young adult fiction section in the library and became concerned that (in my opinion) there were few stories being written with universal themes and a voice that all girls could find engaging and relatable.  That day I decided to ‘be the change that I wanted to see in the literary world’ and set out to write a story that my daughters could one day enjoy.

Two days each week she studied the violin after school which gave me a two hour wait. I wrote the first draft of Boys, Beauty & Betrayal six years ago while sitting in my car waiting to pick my daughter up from violin practice.  The story underwent several major overhauls as I pulled some characters out and added others.  One of my first test readers suggested that I give Tanisha more flaws and conflict to make her more believable as a character, because she was deemed too perfect by my reader.  I went back to the drawing board and introduced the daydreaming imagery so the readers could read how Tanisha often struggled with conflicting thoughts and emotions.  Dawn was created, Tanisha’s secret shame was introduced and the mother daughter issues were developed and established as a major theme for Tanisha’s story line.   In one of the earliest drafts, each chapter chronicled the story line of a different character.  One third of the way through the manuscript, the story was approaching four hundred pages, so I re-worked the project again and decided to create a series.    The next three parts of the series are similar in length to Boys, Beauty & Betrayal and are being readied for publication.  Many of the key themes are explored deeper in the remaining books in the series.

Unlike some writers, I wasn’t born with a quill pen in my hand, convinced that I would write or die, but writing has always been a part of my life.  I won a third place award in an ACTSO competition in high school when my English teacher submitted a creative writing story that I’d written in class.  In college, I loved writing term papers and thought about switching my major to journalism, but one thing led to another and I didn’t.   When I worked in HR, I was often the go-to person given the responsibility for writing critical memorandums, company-wide communications, or editing those written by others.  I enjoyed this part of my job immensely.  Go figure!  I know that God doesn’t make mistakes, so it’s not by accident that I’m a writer now.  I just wasn’t supposed to be a writer then.

I was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a degree in Political Science.  After working in the human resources field for one year, I followed the example of one of my mentors and decided to pursue graduate studies.  While working full time, I attended Loyola University part-time in the evenings and graduated with a Masters in Industrial Relations in two years. It was an intense two year period, but my company paid my tuition, so I graduated without any school debt.

My husband’s name is Brian Ellis, and we’ve been married for over seventeen years.  He’s a lawyer, and we have three children, two girls and a boy:    Bailey Jeanette, Blair Jessica and Brian, Jr.   Before our children were born, I took time off from my corporate gig and worked as a commercial print model and actress.  Working as a model was different and fun, but I found that as a self described “talking clothes horse” I had no input or say in anything.  I was the talent, and the talent didn’t hold an opinion.  My job was to:  pose, smile, get my voucher signed and leave the set.  I missed giving meaningful opinions on stuff, and quite frankly, I missed eating whatever I wanted, so after a few years of modeling, I dusted off my suits and went back into the business world.

Four years ago, my husband’s job transferred us from Chicago to a lovely town (population eight thousand two hundred people) just outside of Milwaukee, WI.  Our town neighbors another small town that boasts an annual Coon Festival, where they serve bar-b-que raccoon.  I’m not making this up.  I’m adventuresome and believe in trying new things; however, this gives new meaning to the "when in Rome do as the Romans do" adage.  I haven’t tasted raccoon and don’t plan to knowingly partake in this local tradition, thank you very much.  No offense to any of my readers who might be coon fans.

When I’m not writing, I spend my time shuttling our children to their activities, volunteering at the school, fulfilling other civic obligations and running our household, which is really a full time job, who knew?   An avid golfer now, my husband and I golf together whenever we can.  I study the Bible and exercise regularly in a neurotic attempt to keep my derriere from reaching my calves.  So far, I’m winning!  On a family sojourn to our favorite vacation haven, I started practicing Bikram Yoga, where you perform Yoga moves in a studio that’s heated to over 110 degrees.  It’s challenging and the best sweat that I’ve ever had.  I love it, but there aren’t any Bikram Yoga studios near me so I haven’t been able to continue my practice.  I guess the folks here are too busy hunting and grilling raccoons to become certified Bikram Yoga instructors.  Maybe I’ll become a certified instructor and open a studio.  I believe in entering by the narrow gate, but this might be pushing it for me.

I really hope that you enjoy Boys, Beauty & Betrayal.  I wrote it for you.  Thanks for visiting my website.  Tell your friends about the book.  Reading good fiction is contagious.  I hope you catch the Tanisha flu!