Becoming an author was an unexpected but kind of inevitable journey for me. I had been scribbling down stories for as long as I can remember, finding solace and escape in words. While I initially never considered publishing my work I always had this deep love for the art of storytelling which is what led me to Los Angeles in pursuit of an acting career. When the idea for my first novel, “Shifted,” came to me I knew it was a story I had to tell. The process of crafting a book, creating worlds and characters, really lit a fire in me and made me realize that I wanted writing books to be a part of the rest of my life.

My writing process is innately intuitive. It’s this delicate balance of creativity and structure. Often, I find it hard to explain where that comes from or how I turn ideas into an effective narrative. It’s this really beautiful combination of both careful planning and gut instinct.

When I’m not writing, I am actively auditioning for acting roles and continuing to chase my passion for the performing arts. Beyond that, I’m also deeply connected to my metaphysical practice, which keeps me grounded and centered. I’m a bona fide concert junkie, always on the hunt for live music experiences. I’m also a huge horror movie nerd and go out of my way to see any and every new horror release. And for alternative modes of self-expression, I turn to my love for cooking, dance and crafting. I find a lot of joy in any form of creativity.

After wrapping up a book, I usually allow myself a short breather to decompress but it’s funny how the creative muse works; even when I decide to take a break, ideas for the next book have a sneaky way of demanding to be written so it’s usually quickly onto the next one.

My first book was released during Hanukkah last year so I got to celebrate my accomplishment with my family while also celebrating the holiday. This novel is my second book and so, sort of as a tradition, I’ve decided to release it on the first night of Hanukkah again.

Shifted, the first novel in my series, started as a writing prompt that asked “What if a woman failed with every man she dated only to find they were all the same man?” Two of my great loves have always been romance novels and horror films and so while there are a lot of ways someone could have taken that prompt, I came up with the idea of a paranormal romance where a recently heartbroken woman who agrees to go out with the next five men who ask her out comes to find there’s a lot more to them than meets the eye.

There are some characters named for my family and friends as a nod to them and there are the occasional quirks that some of my characters have that are similar to people I know but, none of my characters are directly inspired by the people in my life.

I think the most challenging thing about writing Shattered was that I was moving from a very Shifted, which is very cozy and can often feel like a rom-com into this second novel which is a more traditional paranormal romance. The stakes are a lot higher in this book and the subject matter is a lot darker and so doing that in a way that made sense and was still true to the characters I wrote in the first book was definitely a challenge.

My favorite part about writing any book is the puzzle of it. I love figuring out all the twists and turns that I have to take in order to get where I want to go. This book has a lot of twists and is very fast paced so figuring out how to make that happen effectively was definitely the most fun part.

Charlaine Harris was a huge inspiration on this book and to me as an author in general.

The excerpt I included above is definitely my favorite.

I think if I met any of them, I would probably have to apologize. I put them through a lot! I have always really had a soft spot for Leon though and I would tell him the even though we’re not out of the woods yet, it’s all going to end up okay.