The first thing I need to tell you is how to pronounce my name.
It's pronounced "Nuh (as in nut) - tish (rhymes with fish) -
uh." And my last name is pronounced like "Lah - pee - air." Though, if you
pronounce it wrong (so it's somewhat close), I'll say "close enough" and
respond.
I've always
enjoyed reading and making up my own stories.
When I was a kid, I used to read under the covers, sometimes until the wee hours
of the morning. I still do that, by the way, even though I'm a zombie the next
day.
When I was a kid (and later a teen), I wrote a lot of my own
stories, but my teachers never encouraged me. Sometimes, I wish I had saved the stories I wrote when
I was a child.
In high school, I decided that I wanted
to be a scientist when I grew up. Following graduation, I pursued that dream,
but I continued to write creatively (on an online storyboard). I
went to college, received my degrees, and then worked for a pharmaceutical company
for seven years. After leaving the world of science, I decided to
seriously pursue writing as a career.
Now, I'm living in upstate NY with my two sons, husband, two
cats, and a frog. We fill our time with Scout activities, karate practices (and
now swimming too), playing games, riding bicycles (in warm months), and having
snowball fights and sledding (when we have a good snow day).
When I'm not playing with the kids, I'm writing and editing. We
own over 3000 books, and over 1000 of them are children's book. Yes, my children
are book addicts too.
Writing Affiliations:
-
Rochester
Area Children's Writers and Illustrators (RACWI)
-
Society of Children's
Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
-
r-Spec, a Speculative Fiction group in
Rochester, NY
My Critique Groups:
-
The Blue Quills:
We formed as a children's writer group, but one of our members has been
submitting an adult thriller to the group. We have been together since January
2004. We split off from the Boost Online critique forum in November 2005.
-
The Scribblers: A local, in person group of MG and YA writers
that meets once a month to go over individual chapters and once every two months
to critique whole novels for the group.
-
SF/Fantasy group: Three of us meet twice a month to dissect
each others' novels.
-
I exchange work with others on an individual basis.
What Else:
Professional:
-
MuseItUp Publishing, Senior Content Editor, November 2010-present
-
Double Dragon Publishing, Freelance Contract Editor, October 2010-present
-
RACWI newsletter editor fall 2009-present
-
Freelance writer for an educational publisher 2007-present
-
SEO copyrighter 2006-2008
-
Freelance scientific editor 2005-present.
Web Management
Community:
-
Library volunteer at a local elementary school.
-
Cub Scout Leader: three years as a den leader, Cubmaster -
spring 2009- present
-
Rochester Festival-to-Go presenter since fall 2007
-
2006 Presenter in Leo Bernabi Elementary School's Camp
Read-a-Lot program.