About me...

I started a dedicated writing practice in college. My coursework involved a lot of prose and poetry, but an interest in theater pushed me to explore script writing, and I ultimately ended up winning an international playwright competition my senior year.

Then life. Those acute, post-graduate years of rambling around the globe. I, like Katherine Dunn, ‘was not sight-seeing so much as trying to disappear’. I didn’t know what I wanted, I just needed to be alone in new places. So I donned the cloak of an outsider and transformed into the shadowy vision of myself that I always knew I could be. I came home to finish my first novel. Then I popped down to South America to ride out my twenties.

Then I wrote a novella about twelve very strange Zodiac Women. I wanted to record it as a fiction podcast (with me doing all the voices) so I returned to the States and worked on this project for the next three years. I finally got it off the ground, but not before the pandemic killed any chance of my returning to the traveler’s life as I’d known it.

There was also the fact of my early thirties: you see, they’d arrived. I realized I needed to start ‘professionalizing’ my art if I was going to continue making it in a dedicated sort of way. Thankfully, I got lucky and was hired by an EduTech company to convert their educational content into entertainment pieces. This was the perfect opportunity to blend my teaching experience with everything I’d learned about storytelling so far.

Then came 2022. The grip of the pandemic had loosened. I was an employed writer. I had choices. I was considering a move somewhere beachy. But then I discovered interactive fiction – games – the ability to write worlds that people moved through. Their narrative elasticity fascinated me: dialogue, description, background, in-game prose and poetry; the opportunities for a game writer were endless. And they were only getting more cinematically sophisticated. Game writing was like staying true to literature’s roots, while also being allowed to vacation in Hollywood. It was awesome.

And I wanted in. Immediately. So I pivoted my personal writing projects to align with this goal. I spent a year writing and publishing a city exploration game. I spent another year on a novella that did exactly what narrative designers do. I learned to code. I started modding. I got accepted into the Bethesda Verified Creator’s Program. I’m currently working on projects for them, while also finishing an unrelated novella (I love novellas).

And that’s where I am. I’m a published, award-winning writer with professional experience in educational entertainment, but who’s love of exploration and discovery is currently pushing her into interactive frontiers.

I’m also an avid outdoor-ist. I do at least one thing outside every day, even if it’s just catching rain or watching clouds. Nature is the ultimate meditation.

The next question, reader, is who are you? If you haven’t knocked already, I suggest you do. There’s lots to talk about in this crazy world. Until then…

One love. Shine on. Never quit.

Jackie

Me riding a zamboni. Yup. Happened.