I…[pause for dramatic effect]…am a writer.  (Spoken in the fashion of Rip Torn, portraying Q in the film adaptation of Wonder Boys—one of my all-time favorite movies.  Out of respect for my fragile ego, please hold your Tobey Maguire/James Leer laughter.)

I’m not really a writer.  Not by profession or by practice, though many of my teachers (high school and undergrad) have suggested that I should write.  Some day I plan to make good on my promises to move beyond personal essays transcribed on gently-used napkins, but I’ve spent many years letting life (work, school, child-rearing) take precedence.  Now that I’m done with the school bit, I’m catching up years’ worth of missed reading.  I think if I read solidly for about ten years, I might get caught up enough to start writing.

I read mostly middle grade fiction, and expect that’s what I’ll eventually want to write.  My pet interest is mental illness—reading it and writing it.  It’s been naturally infused in nearly everything I’ve written to date, and I don’t suppose I’ll ever be cured of it.  I’m bipolar, if that matters.

I’m 28 years old.  I’ve worked at the Manchester (NH) City Library in varying capacities since April 2004, and as a children’s librarian since January 2009.  (This is as good a time as any to say that my opinions here do not reflect those of my library.)  I received a MS in Library and Information Science from Drexel University in December 2008, and a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire at Manchester in 2006.  I’m also President of CHILIS, the children’s librarians section of the New Hampshire Library Assocation.  My opinions don’t reflect theirs, either.

My spouse, Nate, and I live in Manch with our two daughters, Geraldine (7) and Rhys (5), and our cat, Hiroe Lorensen.

The girls, October 2008: