Howdy! This is my first time doing Pitch Wars (click link for details on this writer’s contest).  After reading so many amazing mentee bios here, I decided I had to break down and do one myself.

Here we go. A wee little background on me.

1. I have a BA in English and Sociology and I will tell you straight up that while my day job is not in either field, every day I use what I learned earning those degrees.  Don’t think about college as a means to and end – ie job.  Better to view college as an opportunity to spend four years (or more) studying any subject that fascinates you.  It is unlikely you’ll have that opportunity at any other time in your life so grab hold and squeeze every bit out of it you can.

 

2. I’ve been lucky enough to travel widely:  Most of the US, Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, I think I’m forgetting one.  Scotland is next up on my wish list.  The husband is Scottish and has been looking for an excuse to wear his kilt 24/7 since we got married.

 

3. I have a boring day job.  Shocker right?

I’m in operations management which means I keep things running efficiently by my amazingly well-written policies and procedures.  When a process breaks down, I either fix it or yell at people until they fix it.

4.  I put writing aside for more than a decade while I was busy working and having babies.  I entered NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words in one month.  I haven’t stopped since.

 

5.  I live in Massachusetts.  It’s wicked pissah!    But no, I don’t sound like a Wahlberg.  I’m a NY transplant so I missed out on the accent.

 

6.  Most of my story ideas start as a scene or a collection of scenes and then I build from there.  I’ve tried to outline and be more organized, but my process is still pretty much sitting down and bashing away.

7.  I make time for writing by ignoring household chores.  You should see my house.

 

8. I write women’s fiction although that genre covers a lot of territory.  What I like to say is that there are plenty of others out there writing ‘serious’ books.  I mean the ones that are reviewed in the NYT, not just getting on the list.  I don’t write those.  Life is hard, sometimes so hard we need a break.  I write about characters who are as real as I can make them with struggles as real as I can make them, but every ending is happy because the world hands out too few of those.

9.  I’m ridiculously busy.  I should not even be sitting here writing this. I should be cleaning this house for my daughter’s Tea Party/American Girl doll birthday party tomorrow.  But writing is now almost a compulsion.  It reduces my stress and anything that can do that is worth it.

10.  My goal is for my readers to turn the last page on the book and feel a bit like you do when you walk out of a great movie, one that made you feel everything and left you energized, uplifted, happy.  That’s what I’m shooting for.

 

 

So that’s it. Thanks for getting all the way through it.  If you’re doing Pitch Wars as well, sound off in the comments.  I’d love to hear what your write and why.  How do you want your readers to feel when they’ve turned the last page?

 

Thanks!

Christa