I grew up in Burbank, CA, not far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.  While my friends had posters of movie stars on their walls, distant lands were always my idol. Posters of the Matterhorn, the Eiffel Tower and The Great Wall of China adorned my closet doors for many years.

Writing was always a source of entertainment for me and as a kid, I spent my free time making up Mad Libs with my friends, writing stories (usually about the boy who would rue the day he chose the ditzy cheerleader over me while I was studying in Paris for the summer), and interviewing the neighbors with a cassette tape recorder the size of a toaster oven.

After graduating from U.S.C. with a degree in International Relations and French, my father gave me this sage advice about how to become a writer:  "Write." He's a man of few words. And like a good daughter, I waited 10 years to listen. I eventually did and after suffering through the corporate America scene for years, I picked up a pen and paper (now a Macbook Air) and found my lifeline to long-term happiness.  It doesn’t pay well and I get more rejections than a nerd looking for a prom date, but I love it!

I have moved around a lot and still enjoy interviewing people wherever I go, using a much smaller recording device of course. And I still fantasize about travel to distant lands, though they are no longer two-dimensional places stuck to a closet door, but rather real and attainable dreams.

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