I feel as though I should share some information about myself here, but I'm not entirely positive what it is you might wish to know about me. I will select some things at random and hope that they answer any burning questions you have.

Breakfast is my favorite meal. I'm particularly fond of Eggs Benedict, although the eggs must be properly poached. If they aren't, I get very sad. A good poached egg must be slightly runny, people.

While we're on the subject of food, I should tell you that I'm quite deedy in the kitchen. A real dab hand. I bake my own bread, make my own sausages and pasta, and am famous in certain circles for devising interesting ways in which to serve unappetizing vegetables. I am also thought to produce the most moist and delicious roasted turkey ever tasted by man. I'm not positive if this includes all of mankind, but I'm assured that it definitely includes all of the men who have tasted my turkey. Hey, that sounded dirty, and it wasn't meant to be. Ignore me.

My favorite color is blue, and I prefer humble silver or pewter to flashy gold.

I have a cat. His name is Fritz, and he is a Norwegian Forest Cat, which means that he is spectacularly furry and large. Fritz is lovely, but he is as dumb as a shoe, and he never knows when a date is over. Seriously, he will look longingly at me as though I haven't just been scratching his head for two solid hours. I have moved on, but Fritz doesn't know how to quit me.

If I had to describe myself in one brief, pithy phrase, I would say that I am an enigma wrapped in bacon covered by a bath towel.

I'm an Aquarius. I don't think it has had any effect whatsoever on who I am and how I move through the world, but there are people who will care about those kinds of things, so I share the information with you because I'm trying to be fair-minded and generous about issues like this.

I know a lot of people, but I like very few of them. People are so selfish and thoughtless. I like people who ask you how you are doing, and then actually stop and listen as though they expect you to tell them honestly what's going on in your life. My best friend Amber does this, and I love her for it.

I'm in pretty great shape all the way around. Really very normal. No neuroses or hangups or tripwires. I'm not saying that there aren't things in my life that I'd like to change, but for the most part, I'm a happy person. This leaves me with plenty of free time to solve the problems of others. Also, I'm a bit of an insomniac, which adds to those hours I have available for the service of others.

I read a lot. Currently, my nightstand boasts the following: a tome on the history of the English language, The Theory of Everything by Stephen Hawking, a delicious old piece of fluff by Georgette Heyer, and a xeroxed copy of a play by Dorothy Sayers called The Just Vengeance.

My son turned eleven this spring. He's completely hilarious - I love listening to him because he has the vocabulary of a college graduate and the mind of a little boy, and these two things in concert with one another produce the most interesting conversations I've ever had. I am trying to raise him to be a good boyfriend, because there are really too few of those around. He holds doors open for women, says "please" and "thank you", and gives plenty of hugs. When he wants me to do something for him, he prefaces the request by saying, "Oh, mommy, you're so beautiful and nice. Would it be too much for me to ask you to..." Isn't that charming? I taught him how to pwn me.

Everyone's got his or her bugaboo about usage. I will avoid the obvious and share one of mine:

Rein - a thin strap of leather attached to a horse's bridle, used to guide and restrain. Something which is meant to restrain or contain (to "rein in" would indicate, for example, that you wish your horse to stop moving, and so have pulled upon the reins to bring the horse to a halt). If you are giving someone "free rein", you are offering them unrestricted access to something, or in essence, permitting your horse to go at whatever pace suits the horse.

Reign - to rule over, as a sovereign. Royal authority. It is impossible to give anyone "free reign".

There's also "rain", but I'm hoping you already know what that one means. In the Northeastern United States, we have of late had a little too much free rain.

Also, I tweet. Feel free to find me to see what the heck I babble about all day: @writeontime

Also also? I started a blog: http:/// In this blog, I will wonder about some things involved in the writing process. I will do that in a friendly (and hopefully, helpful) fashion, and share with you the things I learned in the process of completing my creative writing degree. If you're new to the process of writing fiction, you might find some useful information there. If you don't care about writing and are merely bored, it might make you laugh.

I'm still around, although not writing anything for this site at the moment because I'm trying to finish up a wholly original work. The prologue for "The Event Warden" is posted on my blog, and I'd love it if you jogged over there to take a peek at the thing!