the Author

Claire - the Spirit Pixie

'Though at home in the Night, 

She shies not from the Light,

as between Dreams, she takes to Flight.'

~the Spirit Pixie.~

    Yes, I did have pink, purple, and black hair. Normally I keep my hair in the dark red-head range, but felt like a funky change - actually thinking about sticking with this for a while. Right now I have an ombre color along the lines of Gamora of Guardians of the Galaxy which honestly as nerdy as I can be wasn't on purpose.

    I'm a *muffle mumble* year old divorcee, wife and mother. My husband and I have been married for six years now. Our daughter is five, and I have an adult step-daughter.

    I've been 'writing' since kindergarten and used to make my older cousins put on plays that I would come up with. Bless them, they humored me to the point of building sets out of left over construction materials left around for the plays as well as playing parts under my rather picky direction. At the time I thought I wanted to act. I kept that opinion despite the nagging need to direct and, as I got older, to compose poetry. Until 2001 one of my cousins remained one of 'writing cohorts.'

     It was in the sixth grade, while involved with a production of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" that I stumbled upon the truth. (The adaption was so bad - even for a sixth grade play - that the students staged a protest that got the play canceled.) During the summer that followed I began rewriting my own adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" which, along with "the Little Mermaid," had been one of my favorite fairy tales growing up (even before Disney made cartoons of them). I started searching for older and older versions of the stories, more and more fascinated by the dark tales that these children's bedtime stories came from.

    Still, it wasn't until the following year in Drama that I would realize I didn't just want to bring characters and stories to life - I wanted to CREATE them! Our Drama teacher was also an English major, so for our quarter projects we had to either write or film something. By the second project I was hooked. From that point on through graduation four years later, I took every opportunity to work on my craft, entering contests both through my school and out. Receiving several accommodations along the way, including honorable mentions, and a place on a Spoken Word Poetry CD.

    In 1999, I began working at Disneyland, CA in attractions and though I continued to tweak the projects that I had started before, my writing began taking more and more of a backseat to work and life in general. I would jot down notes here and there for other stories but mostly they sat on the shelf, only my poetry and an adaption of "Beauty and the Beast" for screen got much of my attention. At one point after several injuries, a divorce and a nervous breakdown I almost gave up writing. But thanks to author Skip Press and his book "How to Write What You Want, and Sell What You Write" (read about it) I picked up my pen again.

    In 2006 I self-published my poetry book "A World in Red and Black" through Cafe Press. As of January 2011, I updated it and published it in eBook form through Barnes & Noble. Due to an on the job injury I separated from the Disney company in 2010 and began actively writing again. This blog is part of my pledge to get back on track and pay forward all the support I've received in this endeavor.