I am a writer, educator, and trauma survivor with a fierce wit and an unshakable belief in the power of storytelling. I specialize in turning generational pain into purposeful prose and building community along the way.
I was born in a neighborhood that was quite literally on the wrong side of the highway and the wrong side of the tracks. I grew up in the care of a mother I half jokingly but mostly accurately refer to as the Government Cheese Mommy Dearest. She was abusive, just without the mansion or famous friends to soften the blow. My childhood was marked by multiple layers of trauma, including sexual abuse by a step uncle at the age of two, later abuse by my mother’s boyfriend, and ongoing physical and emotional harm from my own mother. Those early experiences shaped my worldview and sent me on a decades long quest to understand what normal even meant.
I tried to find it in relationships, often leaning on alcohol to numb the fear and anxiety left behind by my past. It was not until I met my now husband in 2005 that I began to understand a different definition of love, one grounded not in perfection, but in patience, presence, and profound acceptance. Together, we built a life rooted in healing and laughter.
In my memoir Chasing Normal: Finding Love After Surviving Physical and Emotional Abuse, I share the raw and unflinching story of how I clawed my way out of trauma and learned to believe in love again. My follow up project, the Rewriting Normal workbook, builds on that journey by offering guided reflection and practical exercises for readers who are ready to examine their own stories and redefine what normal means for them. My Cracked Track Parenting work expands this narrative further by exploring what it means to break generational cycles while raising a child without a healthy parenting blueprint. The companion community I built under the same name offers a judgment free space for other cycle breakers trying to rewire their instincts with grace and a lot of humor.
Professionally, I thrive in the gig economy as a college writing professor teaching across three universities online. My specialties include guiding students through grammar woes, AI detection drama, and the occasional late night existential essay crisis. My classrooms, virtual or otherwise, run on compassion, caffeine, and the firm belief that writing can change lives, even if the first draft is a disaster.
I now live in Phoenix with my gentle, sarcastic husband and our enormous Great Danes, who show their love through slobbery affection and enthusiastic tail whacks. My grown son, a frequent subject of both pride and hilarious anecdotes, lives out of state but never far from my heart. Whether on the page or in person, I continue to connect with others through vulnerability, humor, and the audacity to tell the truth out loud.
Did you grow up in a similar situation? If you’ve ever felt like you were “too damaged” or “too different,” you’re exactly who I’m here for.
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