#Pitchwars Mentee Bio

Okay, okay, fine. I will do a bio. Jeesh.

My name is Erin and I am a writer. A good one. I'm okay with saying that now.

I am a good writer.

I like my stories heavy, thought-provoking and  tear-inducing, with a liberal dash of snark and humor.

I am newer to writing fiction. I haven't written stories since I was five, like some of my Writerly friends. I've been telling stories since then, though. I've often thought that I would love to be a professional storyteller, except, I am a tiny bit introverted in real life. And by tiny, I mean I'm basically a hermit. If I wasn't married to an handsome outdoorsman and the mother of two insanely active children, I would likely never leave my home. (Not even for groceries. Like, Amazon does that now, don't they? I fully support the Amazon drone if it means I no longer need to go to Kroger.)

So I started writing down my stories so that I could actually share them with my loved ones. Most particularly, I wanted to create a character that my daughter and niece could admire. The self-awareness of Elizabeth Bennet with the cool head of Anne Elliot. The pluckiness of Becky Bloomwood tempered by the down-to-earth sarcasm of, well, every smart teenaged girl I've ever met. I didn't care what she looked like and I didn't care where she came from. As long as she could kick Bella Swan's ass and hang with Hermione and Ginny, I was good.

I read everything. Literally everything. I started with Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, THE BABYSITTERS CLUB and ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN. In high school, I bounced between Jane Austen, Christopher Pike and Patricia Cornwell. In college, I found HARRY POTTER. While my children were being born, I discovered TWILIGHT and THE HUNGER GAMES and sprinkled those in between my favorite chick lits— anything with pink on the cover and had the likeability of Sophia Kinsella's SHOPAHOLIC series. Prairie Romances? Yes, please. Stephen King. Okay, sure. Piers Anthony? Since I was a baby, practically. Which is weird, I know. Michael Crighton. Tom Clancy. Meg Cabot. Jane Green.

Since I've written INDIGENOUS, I've discovered the world of YA SFF and I am in love. The LUNAR CHRONICLES haunt my dreams. Rae Carson's GIRL OF FIRE AND THRONES series consumed my life to the point that I don't think I ate for four days while I read. Henry Neff is a genius. Pick up his books RIGHT NOW. Cinda Williams Chima and Melina Marchetta transport me and its amazing. I run to an audio version of PERCY JACKSON and THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS. Rick Riordan has gotten me through training for two half marathons and more road trips than I can count.

INDIGENOUS is my first book and is the lead-in to an almost complete trilogy. It's about genetics and ethics and a group of dear, gifted teenagers led by a sarcastic half-native American telepath named Charlie. I did not set out to write a SF. It just happened, people! I had a slight GATTACA obsession in high school and the ethical questions behind genetic manipulation and designer babies would. not. let. go. My baby brother is genius scientist. So, idly, I asked him a few questions about "what ifs" and it turned into a YA series. I think he still shakes his head that I took his science and made a fictional universe out of it. Incidentally, I also get lots of late night texts that say "That's not really a thing, Erin. Sorry."

I did the math last night and realized I've been half-way querying INDIGENOUS for almost 9 months. As I've been querying, I've been editing. DON'T DO THIS. Believe me. There is little worse in this process than a random email seven months later from a respected agent that has your original query and pages attached with a resounding NO. How embarrassing. Seriously.

Oh yeah, and I'm not patient. Obvi.

Likes:

My kids (they are hilarious and at 4 and 6 already are fluent in sarcasm and badassery)

My husband. We're one of those sick couples that met as teenagers and still make each other laugh. I know. Sorry. He's not a reader, but is my number one fan which is seriously incredible.

Black olives, marshmallows, cashew cream ice cream, banana peppers, guacamole and probably anything at Chipotle. If it was an apocalyptic scenario and all I had left were napkins from Chipotle, I'd probably be fine.

Running. Slowly. Alone. When it is twenty degrees out and dark. If it's just snowed, all the better. God, there is nothing more peaceful than a night run in the snow.

Teen Movies. I was a pre-teen to teen in the era of EMPIRE RECORDS, CLUELESS, CAN'T HARDLY WAIT and TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, so to me, those are perfection. But I love them all from the beach movies of the 60's to The Brat Pack, to THE DUFF.

Grunge music. If it brings to mind greasy, stringy hair and a thrift store sweater, it speaks to me—whispers sweet nothings into my ear.

Jesus. This is a biggie for me. I might get on my soap box here, so excuse me. I LOVE JESUS. I do. I just don't think he wants me to hate everyone else. Sorry. I touch on faith in my books, but they aren't anything a traditional "Christian" publisher would probably like. My characters cuss, they drink, they talk about sex (and some have it, though they don't tell me details). Some of them also have faith in God. I do not believe these things are mutually exclusive. Like ever.

Dislikes: hypocrisy, social injustices (I was a sociology major in college, with a history minor- Damn The Man), tomatoes, mushrooms, sports (unless they are the Olympics), waking up from a too-long nap, wimpy heroines, gore, bullies, judgmental people of any faith system, grocery shopping and douchecanoes that get too much media attention (ie:Donald Trump)

Okay. You've made it to the end. If you are a fellow Writerly, come by my twitter and introduce yourself. I adore talking shop and want nothing more than to see all of my talented friends' names on a book shelf someday.

If you are a Mentor with #pitchwars, "Hi." Thanks for reading. I will work my ass off for you if chosen, and will respect the hell out of you either way because this business is hard and if we don't stick together, it's damn near impossible. :)

Erin out.

Fighting Fear to do Incredible Things

http://www.faithit.com/because-sometimes-you-just-need-see-people-doing-awesome-things-remember-youre-still-freakin-alive/

 

 

The most adventurous thing I've ever done is cliff jump while in college. It was probably only about 15 or 20 feet, but it was in the dark and the name of the jump area was "Dead River Falls". So, I mean, that sounds pretty terrifying.

And it super was. I almost puked, standing there at the edge. I am one of those "panic attack in a ferris wheel" kind of Afraid of Heights people. In fact, step stools make me nervous. So fifteen feet might as well be a thousand.

 

I will admit freely however, that the rush of adrenaline and adventure was pretty amazing. I can see how people can dig it. This video makes my belly hurt, but I had a beaming smile the entire time I watched.

 

People who fight fear with courage are my heroes.

 

Happy Monday!



Feeling beautiful...

http://www.faithit.com/this-brave-beautiful-girl-felt-super-ugly-magical-bald-princess-walked-through-door/

 

Can I just tell you that my four year girl looked at this article with me today and all she had to say was "They are both so beautiful." She didn't even notice that they were bald.

 Or if she did, it didn't matter one bit to her. How about that? Happy Friday!!!

Beyond the Call of Duty

http://www.cnn.com/videos/justice/2015/01/22/dnt-telemarketer-alerts-police-assault.klas

If you watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday, then chances are good that you heard this commercial about domestic violence. In our home, there was silence each and every time it played. Which was a lot, because we streamed the game. Even more astounding is that the script is real life. A former 911 dispatcher posted the conversation on reddit a while back because he thought it was a clever way to cry for help in a horrendous situation.

This morning I found another case that felt similar. It isn't clear if the woman who was being abused meant to answer her phone... I doubt it because it was in her back pocket and she was clearly fighting for her life. The important thing is that the strangers heard what was going on and sought help for her from hundreds of miles away. They refused to hang up. They recorded the attack. They are speaking out on her behalf.

Even just the snippets I heard terrified me.

Let's plaster this man's face all over the damn place and let's give credit to the brave telemarketers for taking action. And I am going to say a prayer of thanks to God.

Nothing Holding Her Back

http://buzzflare.com/this-teen-runs-the-fastestbut-her-coach-always-needs-to-catch-her-at-the-finish-line/


Whoa.

Just whoa.

Incredible.

Highlighting Children and Poverty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1XFl1OxT0

This is a bit of a different kind of post for me. I can't really say that there is a specific hero here, except I do adore Jennifer Garner as a mom and I appreciate that she is behind this project. Celebrities, by just putting their name on something important, can really raise awareness. I love when they take advantage of that.

I was surprised to find that Ann Arbor actually has a large homeless population. Not a day goes by that I don't see someone on one of street corners asking for handouts. What really gets me however, is the sheer number of homeless families. Kids living in their cars with their unemployed parents. There was a large movement earlier this past August to make sure that if nothing else, these kiddos were being enrolled for school, where they would get education and be fed. But that is just the start. Can you imagine coming home exhausted from school only to sit in a cramped, chilly car with your family?  We live in a small apartment but at least my son can hide away in his room until dinner time if he's over tired. He's warm, safe and his belly is full. We can take him to the doctor when he's feeling ill. We can toss him in the shower when he's starting to get stinky. :)

It's heartbreaking. I've started to attempt to increase awareness in my kids. It would be easy to hide the poverty, but it's not an US and THEM kind of a deal, to me. Afterall, a lot of us are just a job away from the streets, ourselves. Sure, there is horrendous poverty all over the world. And it is super easy to tell ourselves that we are just too removed to do anything. Something to consider, however, is taking a real look around your community. Do a google search of homeless shelters. Call a church and ask if they've been approached by homeless seeing assistance. I guarantee your eyes will be opened.

If you do nothing else, maybe watch this documentary. I plan to. I watched Half the Sky a year ago and it completely opened my eyes (I think it is on Netflix, still). I assure you this will be the same.

And... I would love feed back on the ways you choose to teach your children about the world and poverty, as I am always learning!

Uptown Funk

http://youtu.be/0EUEg7kd6Cg

Of course, it's always inspirational when teachers take the time to engage their students and do something extraordinary.... but I am really just posting this because it's fun.

After The Sickness invaded my household this week, I like fun.

Happy Thursday, everyone.