: About Me

I live in a weird "little" town in the Missouri Ozarks with a rotating cast of friends and an emotionally needy cat named Shadow. I work in the activities department at a resort here in town, where my job is to entertain rich old people. When I'm not at work, I spend a lot of time with my friends, who are always at my house because my roommate and I gave them a key. They're really more of a "found family" than a circle of friends. I read a lot of books, watch *way* too much TV, and if I buy any more CD's, they're going to take over and drive off in my car.

Some things I love: *Heroes,* red skittles, my little three-year-old friends Josef and Emma, *Gilmore Girls,* all books by Madeleine L'Engle, candles that smell good, holding a string over my cat's face and watching him go crazy, Nickel Creek, Hugh Laurie, Broadway showtunes, and my big puffy blue coat.

Some things I don't love: Being stood up, pervasive Minnesota accents, other people's entitlement issues, sauerkraut, and Oprah.

My passion is ...

helping hurting people.

I know too much about ...

music that doesn't get played on the radio.

My parents always told me ...

to act like a lady.

My childhood ambition ...

was to be a famous writer. Or an astronaut.

My favorite memory ...

is one magical day my junior year of college when everything fell together just right.

Why I write ...

to tell the stories...

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

reading: "Breaking Dawn" by Stephanie Meyer; watching: "Arrested Development" season 1; listening to: "On a Clear Night" by Missy Higgins

My first job ...

was the cafeteria at the cofo.

My best moment ...

was singing in Austria.

My inspiration ...

good music like Sean Watkins' *Blinders On*, good books like David Crowder's *Praise Habit*, good TV like Joss Whedon's *Angel* series, good movies like *Garden State*

Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Friendship

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I don't know when we all became friends. It may have been that first day in the kitchen when Betsy Crittenden came over to nose around. It may have been a lot of little things, like how Adena and Sam started carpooling to their rehearsals at the symphony and how on the nights that Jude worked late at the hospital, he could expect to find me waiting for him on the living room couch. It could have been how Patrick practiced the piano every day and didn't mind that I sat in the living room and listened to him. It could have had something to do with Natalie, who managed to get along with every...

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