My Writing

I’ve always been a writer, even while pursuing what others would call a ‘real’ career.

My academic journey started with History at the University of Rhode Island, where I earned my BA with a focus on United States history. The curriculum wasn’t just history – I dove into native american anthropology, art courses and photography, and studied writing. After completing my History degree, I spent another year earning my Art degree.

My first job out of college taught me humility. I spent a long winter in a boat yard grinding boat bottoms, working with fiberglass, cleaning teak decks, and fumbling through mechanical repairs. That year convinced me I needed a different path, so I applied to graduate school for art.

Several programs accepted me, but the University of Cincinnati won me over with their cutting-edge computer lab for art, design, and architecture. My focus on digital media was unusual for the time – this was when digital photography was considered experimental, and the Internet was an academic experiment.

UC’s program had an interesting requirement: graduate students needed nine graduate credits outside their primary field. While most of my fellow students chose art history, I saw my chance to pursue creative writing. The prospect of a graduate-level writing course intimidated me, but knowing that acclaimed author Josip Novakovich would be teaching made it irresistible.

First day of class, Josip announced we’d be “working on our novels.” Not short stories as I’d expected – novels. I was the only non-writing MFA student in a room full of future authors, but I embraced the challenge. Over that short quarter, I wrote seventy pages of my novel “Frost.” The experience shattered my belief that writing a novel was beyond my reach. It showed me that ambitious goals were achievable with dedication and persistence.

That class marked the beginning of my serious writing journey. It gave me the confidence to tackle larger projects. It made me feel like big goals were eminently doable.