Epic Political Fantasy Author | Creator of Pnereth

Short Bio

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Every World Begins with a Story

The first fantasy world I ever truly lived in wasn’t one I created. It arrived beneath the Christmas tree in 2001. That year, my parents gave me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Somewhere between Diagon Alley and Hogwarts, I discovered that books could become places you visited rather than simply stories you read.

Like so many millennial readers, I proudly stood in line for midnight book releases and movie premieres. Those evenings, surrounded by people who believed stories mattered enough to lose sleep over, remain some of my happiest childhood memories. Looking back, I realize they taught me something that has stayed with me ever since:

Stories have the power to build communities long before they build worlds.

I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

Long before Hogwarts, though, my bookshelves were filled with Goosebumps and The Baby-Sitters Club. I loved reading for as long as I can remember, and apparently writing wasn’t far behind. At my first son’s baby shower, my kindergarten teacher surprised me with a copy of the very first “book” I had ever written. It was a delightfully ridiculous little masterpiece called A Dog Named Toby. Peak six-year-old humor, and perhaps my earliest proof that storytelling had already found me.

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The Dream That Became a World

Pnereth began in the spring of 2023. I had recently become a mother for the first time when I woke from a dream that refused to let me go. At first, the story was almost satirical as a reflection on politics, institutions, and the world we currently inhabit. It started as a short piece of literary realism. But the more I explored it, the more it transformed into something much deeper.

Today, what I affectionately call Project Feather has become a love letter to my faith, my fascination with history, and my belief that hope is strongest when it asks something difficult of us.

At its heart, the story asks one question:

What makes someone worthy?

It’s the question my female main character Vayda Vaelor has spent her entire life trying to answer. Raised beneath an ancient prophecy, she’s been taught exactly what worth should look like, and exactly who has the authority to decide it. But as she journeys beyond everything she’s ever known, she begins to wonder whether worth can truly be measured by institutions, expectations, or power.

This is not a story about perfect heroes.

Instead, I’m far more interested in ordinary people who choose compassion when it would be easier to choose control, who continue asking difficult questions, and who discover that courage often looks quieter than history remembers.

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Why Fantasy?

I enjoy reading across many genres, but fantasy has always felt like home. Fantasy gives us permission to ask impossible questions in order to uncover very real truths. It allows us to step outside our own world long enough to examine it with fresh eyes. Through imagined kingdoms, magical systems, and ancient prophecies, we can wrestle with questions about justice, faith, leadership, sacrifice, and hope in ways that often feel both safer and more honest than reality itself.

When readers finish one of my books, I hope they don’t simply remember the magic.

I hope they leave believing that even in a complicated world, there are still limitless possibilities for goodness.

I hope they hug the people they love a little tighter.

I hope they extend compassion a little farther.

And I hope they remember that history has always been shaped by ordinary people choosing to do extraordinary things.

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The World Behind the World

Friends often ask where Pnereth came from. The answer is… a little bit of everywhere.

Its marble cities, philosophy, and civic traditions draw heavily from Ancient Greece. Theologically, Pnereth is deeply shaped by early Church history and the questions that emerged during the Reformation: Who holds authority? How should institutions serve people? What happens when good intentions become rigid systems?

Those questions are also informed by my own life.

By day, I work as a governmental data analyst after spending nearly a decade in the nonprofit sector. I’ve witnessed both the incredible good institutions can accomplish and the very real limitations they sometimes create. Those experiences naturally find their way into my writing.

I also attended a private Christian school from preschool through twelfth grade before stepping into a liberal arts university. It was a transition that challenged many assumptions I’d carried with me. In many ways, Vayda’s journey through Pnereth mirrors that experience of leaving a familiar world, encountering new perspectives, and learning that truth is often more nuanced than we expect.

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Beyond the Writing Desk

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If I Lived in Pnereth…

The truth? I’m still not entirely sure.

But I suspect I’d happily spend my days wandering the Halls of Aura, asking far too many questions, drinking coffee while surrounded by dusty manuscripts, and accidentally finding myself in the middle of someone else’s adventure.

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Thank You for Being Here

Whether you’ve been following my writing journey from the very beginning or you’ve only recently discovered this little corner of the internet, thank you. Writing a novel is a long road, but I’ve learned that stories become richer when they’re shared along the way.

That’s exactly why I created Missives from Pnereth, my bi-weekly newsletter where I share writing updates, original serialized stories, worldbuilding archives, book inspirations, and glimpses into the making of Pnereth long before publication.

I believe stories remind us that hope isn’t something we’re given. It’s something we choose. Again and again.

If my books leave readers believing that ordinary people can change the course of history through compassion, courage, curiosity, and the quiet decision to keep choosing one another, then I’ll consider my work worthwhile.

I’m so glad you’re here.

I hope you’ll stay awhile.