Blame or praise – your choice – my second-grade teacher for my chosen path as writer. She allowed me hours of extra time to write in my daily journal each morning, while my classmates moved on to other subjects. Her leniency motivated me to write my first award-winning story, and propelled me into my future writing career.

I honed my skills at Texas State University, where I received my degree in mass communications. I spent the next decade developing news stories, business narratives and awarding-winning marketing campaigns for companies such as GameStop, Bell Helicopter, Omni Hotels & Resorts and the Big 12 Conference.

That work helped put food on the table, but did not feed my soul. I knew what did, so I pursued an MFA in screenwriting to develop and hone my storytelling skills. My needs were more than met. My imagination exploded in ways that I never could have imagined. My (available!) feature film script, Charlie Horse, was nominated for best screenplay at NXTUP fest. My award-winning pilot script about shady apartment living is attracting interest from producers. And I even started and finished an urban fantasy novel about the wonders of gravity, which I am now preparing to pitch to book agents.

When I’m not writing, or analyzing other scripts, which have come my way via the script analysis meeting I co-founded, you can find me glued to my TV broadcasting any number of football or wrestling teams I follow, playing blackjack at the local casino, or spending my summers swimming, beaching and boating on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma, a short jaunt from my home. None of these surprising: I’ve been waterskiing since I was three; I drove to my football practice when I was thirteen; I coached a little league wrestling team to a national championship when I was eighteen.

And let's not forget writing, which I've been doing since I was seven.