I started college at Minot State University in 2011, but transferred to University of North Dakota fall of 2012, where I completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Language & Literature with a minor in Linguistics. Over my academic career, I have studied Spanish at length and dabbled in German, French, and American Sign Language, but I make sporadic forays into new languages to explore patterns and markers. I am now relearning German, and having a great time.

I moved to Boston to attend Emerson College in 2015, where I completed a Master of Arts in Publishing & Writing in 2017, with special emphasis on digital and web development. Alongside courses on traditional print publishing, both book and periodical, I learned how to build websites and create functional, dynamic e-books, as well as how to use various Adobe Creative Cloud programs, such as DreamWeaver, InDesign, PhotoShop and Illustrator.

For my thesis project, I created a database of Indo-European language sets mapped to their ancestries and general phoneme set. When this was built, I then created a front-end website from which to access the database. I received assistance in creating the connective PHP tissue to allow both ends to interact.

As of January 2022, I am now working on a new Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences at Simmons University, for which I am, again, specializing in the IT arena. Because apparently I really, really like databases.

I began my professional editorial career at TechTarget, headquartered just outside of Boston. I worked as the Assistant Site Editor for one of my media group’s busiest websites for two years, after which I was promoted to Associate Site Editor, and later to lead Site Editor for the same site.

My resumé and professional writing portfolios are available via the links at the bottom of the page.

Personal life

I grew up on a farm in North Dakota, surrounded by wildlife, pastures, fields and livestock. My brothers and I played in the mud, worked in the garden, and periodically got hurt on farm equipment. (Usually on other stuff, though.) Some kids like to learn the hard way.

Throughout school, I leaned heavily into my music education and practiced on 5 different instruments. I also participated in high school speech performance competitions, led plays for drama, and raced (poorly) in track and field. I was also a cheerleader for one season of basketball; I still can’t decide quite how I feel about that.

My hobbies include writing, fiber crafts (crochet and cross-stitch in particular), water color, makeup artistry and music. My partner and I have a black Siamese kitty we’ve named Bricabrac Pumpernickel Wootswoot; you can find him on Instagram. And my partner and I parent a wealth of plants, which our cat terrorizes to no avail. Eventually, we decided we didn’t have enough, so we set up an aquarium, which you can see in the home page banner.

some fun facts, because why not?

• I have made more than 5,000 pizzas in my working life. No, for real; I’ve done the math.

  • (I still love pizza. Nothing has changed.)

• I wrote my first book the summer before eighth grade!

  • It was bloody terrible top to bottom and I have destroyed all evidence of its existence.

    • I do regret this sometimes, but my memory works just fine.

• I identify as femme-drogynous pansexual — but queer is more than sufficient.

  • This means I’m not attached to my gender, but I’m not concerned about yours, either.

• I developed a banana allergy at 23.

  • I am still mad salty about it.