About Me

Hi, I'm Jess and I'm a writer. I know that sounds like an introduction at an AA meeting, but I think that's quite fitting, since writing and telling stories is certainly a kind of addiction for me. And this is how it started.

When I was 4, my family lived in Philadelphia. We didn't have a car, and my parents weren't really "stroller" parents, so my little sister and I walked with them. Of course, we were tiny and our legs were short, so our feet started hurting very quickly. We would whine and complain until my dad started telling us stories about two sisters named Halle and Falina who went on amazing adventures together. These stories were captivating, and my sister and I completely forgot about the boring walks and how much our feet hurt whenever he'd tell them.

In the summer of 2006, my maternal grandma bought me a book, but it wasn't like any book I'd owned before, because it was completely blank. There was no title, the cover was a gorgeous scene of mountains and horses, and inside there were pages and pages of lined paper. The possibility of it was so exciting. What would I write? What could I write? I started obsessively journaling that summer, and I wrote lots of terrible poetry.

In the winter of 2008, at the ripe old age of 12, I had two poems published in an online magazine which, I'm not even sure exists anymore. The magazine was called Cheeky Monkey Press and I was paid $1 for each poem, and it was such a rush that I knew I wanted to be doing this for a long time.

In 2010, I accidentally started writing what would become my first novel. I say “accidentally” because in 2011 I realized I had 20,000 words in this thing that was originally just supposed to be one scene.

On February 11, 2013, when I was 16 years old, I self published my first novel, From the Ashes, and on September 17, 2017, I published its sequel, The Inferiors.

Now, it's 2025 and it's been quite some time since I've officially published anything--unless you count Star Wars fan fiction on AO3--but I'm hoping that's going to change in the next few years.

Some Fun Facts

- I'm so obsessed with Star Wars that I've basically made it my whole personality. (But don't talk to me about the Sequels. *Channels inner Anakin* I hate them!)

- I love reading science fiction and fantasy, but I'll pretty much read every genre.

- I've been to every US state except for 4. Can you guess which ones?

- I have lived in 7 different states and moved 16 times.

- I have a Cavalier King Charles named Jasper, but my husband and I lovingly call him The Worst Dog Ever. It's okay, his other nickname is Mr. Perfect.