The short answer? Art wasn’t something I “got into.” I was born into it, and I’ve been drawing for nearly 30 years now.

The long answer: My parents, who were both artistic in their own rights, always encouraged me to be creative. I remember my dad taking me to Michaels to buy art supplies, and my mom saved every scrap of paper I drew on.

My art style is very heavily influenced by cartoons and anime, so most of my drawings are character designs. I'm not as skilled with realism, though my drawing classes have taught me how to draw a mean still life.

I love taking photos of nature, animals, and landscapes. I've learned that I enjoy being in the background and capturing candid moments, so photojournalism is right up my alley. I don't have a ton of experience with studio lighting, so portraits aren't my strong suit, but I have taken outdoor senior photos with excellent results. 

I often use acrylic and watercolors for my paintings, but have also used oil paints on occasion.

For traditional drawings, I use mechanical pencils and Faber Castell ink markers. I'm still learning how to use Ohuhu alcohol based markers. Of course, I've also had experience with your standard supplies: HB Pencils, Charcoals, Prisma Colored Pencils, etc.

I use Paint Tool SAI and a Wacom tablet for my digital art, but have used other programs such as Photoshop Elements and Lightroom.

I also have experience with developing black and white film and prints, but lack the supplies to do so from home. It's a craft I deeply miss, but digital photography is satisfying enough. 

As cliché as it is: never give up and always practice. I have almost a dozen 3" binders filled with drawings and stories all the way back to first grade. It's hard to see your own progress until you look back - which can be embarrassing, but think of those old journals as time capsules showing how far you've come.

I’ve always written short stories, but I didn’t try writing my first novel until high school. I got through about 100 pages of rambling on loose-leaf paper in a school binder before realizing I need a bit more structure and planning. My second and third attempts were better, but didn’t quite hit the mark. The Art of Falling was my first completed manuscript.

And as much as I enjoy doing writing as a hobby, I also want to be able to make a career out of it. I don't plan on stopping writing, even if I never make it big on the New York Times Best Sellers.

In the same way some people are naturally good at sports, math, music, or dance, writing and art is what I’m good at. As much as I enjoy doing it as a hobby, I also want to be able to make a career out of my passions. But most importantly, I have dozens of stories to tell. I want to share it with those who may enjoy my tales. I don't plan on stopping writing, even if I never make it big on the New York Times Best Sellers.

I’m a sucker for fiction, particularly romance and fantasy. However, I do enjoy writing non-fiction as well and have vague plans of writing a memoir about my experience with emetophobia.

I also write poetry from time to time, but find that I’m a bit verbose. Maybe I’ll have enough poems one day to publish a small poetry book.

I've tried juggling multiple ideas at once, but my brain likes to work in a linear, "accomplish one task on the to-do-list" manner. Typically when I'm into an idea, I can't break away from it until I feel satisfied.

With that said, I do have a back-up project for when I hit a writer’s block with The Age of Mythos. I’ve been writing a collection of short stories based on my D&D character. It’s more of a writing prompt than anything I need to have polished for publication.

When I was in middle school, I was in love with urban fantasy series' such as Maximum Ride by James Patterson. By high school, I had transitioned into dystopian novels such as the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman.

In my college years, I whiplashed between nostalgic middle-grade books like the Warriors series by Erin Hunter and contemporary young adult fiction like This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.

Now as a 30-something year old, I’ve been diving deep into adult murder mysteries like They Never Learn by Layne Fargo.

You can check out all of the books I've read, as well as my ratings for them, over at goodreads and storygraph.

I highly recommend getting involved in a writing group. Hearing from other authors and giving constructive criticism in return helped me learn to become a better writer and editor. That alone is one of the biggest blessings. Learning how to decipher which comments are productive and which comments are a waste of space will help you build your confidence and know what to take into consideration for your next project. 

Outside of writer’s block? The most difficult part of writing a novel, for me, is keeping my ideas concise and on track. My flash fiction and short stories tend to become novels, and my novels become part of a series. The Art of Falling was meant to be a stand-alone story and now it's going to be four books. Oops.

As for what I love about writing, I almost love the editing process more than writing itself! A lot of my best ideas came from a suggestion, critique, or question, and I enjoy fine tuning my stories until they're as close as they can be to perfect.

The Age of Mythos originally began as stories that my friends and I created in middle school. We’d always joke that I would write the scripts, and they would draw the animations and do the voice acting. Once we grew up, I thought, “why not write the books?”

In total, there will be four books in Regal and Keir’s saga. As for the full series, it’s hard to say. I’m already introducing characters who will eventually have their own sagas within the Age of Mythos universe, connecting everyone together. Expect a very long journey ahead of us!