I run the workshops here at Dropping Lines Writing. I was born in Tennessee, but found myself in Pennsylvania around 2001. I came here for a boy - tale as old as time - and it turns out, he liked writing, too! In 2011, we started participating in the now defunct NaNoWriMo. He was able to finish and self publish a few books with that challenge and my challenge became editing them.

At some point, I decided to go back to school and learn more about writing and editing and that is what I did. I obtained a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from SNHU and started my workshops with the local school district community school as well as a writing club for the middle schools. 

I always found it sad that the adults in my workshops were always saying, "I am not that creative" and the kids in my clubs were struggling with a school system that focuses more on technical writing than letting their creativity out. I always enjoyed it when all of my workshop participants found that spark, that joy, in writing by helping them past any blocks and hurdles so they could experiment with whatever it is they felt compelled to write.

I then decided to make it even MORE official and went back to school for my MFA in order to be able to teach writing and graduated in October of 2020. I was a bit disillusioned with all the workshops I had participated in by this point as they seemed to focus mainly on what was wrong. The problem was, most of the critiques were technical issues like grammar or spelling and no one ever told me what I was doing right.

Then I found Amherst Writers & Artists or AWA. I took part in one of their Write Around the World fundraisers and was hooked on the method. The AWA method focused on telling writers what was good about their writing, not bad. Basically what worked, what you liked, and what stuck with you. The February after I graduated I took the AWA training to be an official leader, and have never looked back.

This was game changing for me. How awesome would it be to lead a workshop where people did nothing but talk about the good things that you were doing? So many writers give up because too many people tell them what is wrong and never what is right.

And so, Dropping Lines Writing was born. After helping teens and tweens keep their spark, after helping adults rediscover theirs, I decided that this was my thing. My calling. And now, here I am. Leading workshops and helping people find that writing spark ... or keep it. 

Let me help you rediscover your creative spirit. 

Come write with me.