I’m a Reader, with a capital R. I figure once the number of books you read per year starts hitting triple digits you get to capitalize the R in reader. Just roll with it. I’m also a wife, mother, wishful world traveler, tea drinker, over-aged manga addict, nail biter, lapsed 日本語のがくせい, occasional beader, amateur knitter,  writer, limited online gamer, internet-dependent American woman in her early forties.

I waited a lot of tables in college and then spent seven years investigating allegations of abuse and neglect with the Missouri and Florida Departments of Children and Families. I recently returned from the UK, where I lived for several years and garnered a degree or two. Now I call St. Louis, Mo home and pretends not to miss England.

I happen to love university campuses, and have more education than I need, including a Bsc in Anthropology, with minors in Archaeology and Comparative Religion, an MA in International Criminology, and an Msc in Social Change (Stats). I still plan to pursue a Ph.D. at some point, if life would just get out of the way, oh, and write the great American novel, of course.

I tried once when l wrote The Weeping Empress. It’s a dark fantasy adventure with some unexpected YA crossover appeal. It follows the misadventures of a small band as they attempt to escape a fate laid down by the Goddess herself, and changing the course of history as they go. But nowadays I look back at that as more of a learning experience.

My favorite quote is  “There is pleasure sure in being mad which none but madmen know,” by John Dryden.

This is my favorite picture of myself, though it’s getting a little old now.

The blog is a hobby I started many years ago. I like reviewing books. I liked the way writing a review puts punctuation at the end of a reading experience. It also helps me remember, years later, what I thought of a book once the memory starts to fade.

I do occasionally accept review requests or join a blog tour. But that’s on my whims. This is primarily a hobby endeavor, not a job, and I run it as such. Not to be a bitch, but that means I make the rules. All of them.

The same goes for the reviews themselves. Reviews often vary. One might be quite academic in tone, and the next just fan-girl squeal, and the next a toxic rant against some aspect of a book. It all depends on how I feel at the end of the book, what struck me, or stayed with me, or irritated me. I can’t be doing it all wrong though; I usually float  between 1,800-2,200 in the Amazon ranking so…

Goodreads
Instagram
Twitter
Amazon