I recently completed my MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. I write essays and articles about many topics, but my interests often lead me to science, nature, explorations and/or motorcycling. I also blog about my creative writing on my Paragraphs blog.

I am currently looking for a publisher for my collection of essays called, Hookers With PhDs: And Other Juxtapositions. If you are a publisher or agent, I would be happy to send the book proposal to you, along with a sample of essays or the entire manuscript. Here is the preface to the collection:

I liked to compete in the “impromptu speech” category while on my high school and college forensics teams. We entered a room where two or three judges sat at a table topped with a bowl or basket. We put a hand into the basket and pulled out a topic typed on a small piece of paper. Our job was to talk about that topic. We had 10 minutes total that we could divvy up any way we liked. We could prepare for five minutes and speak for five minutes, prepare for three minutes and speak for seven minutes, or any other combination. I always prepared for zero minutes and spoke for ten. This approach proved sometimes disastrous, occasionally brilliant, and always invigorating.

Writing essays feels like plunging my hands into that basket and rummaging around for the piece of paper that feels like an interesting topic. It’s fun to explore new subjects and challenge myself to find what’s compelling about every-day things. Essays are like saturated snapshots of life, and this appeals to my ADD brain and preference for adrenaline highs and quick thrills. When it comes to literature, I want to start the evening with a couple of golden margaritas, flirt a while and then get lucky without catching a nasty disease or the feeling that I ought to call the next day. It is with this twisted and inquisitive mindset that I have approached essay writing. I am a nature loving biker chick with an MFA. I explore on solo trips – never riding in groups. I go where my curiosity takes me. If the Gil Grisom character from CSI Las Vegas were a girl, rode a motorcycle and had an MFA instead of a science degree, he would be the “me” I have summoned for this collection. I am part geek, part rebel, part tree hugger, and part smart-ass.

So many authors have influenced my writing, but I would like to mention a few in particular. For his wit and creative style, I adore the work of Carl Hiaasen. He brings the underside of Florida alive with great color and pizzazz and his characters are both grotesque and lovable. Speaking of underside, I am in awe of George Saunders’s inventiveness. His short stories and essays are mind bogglingly original. For her gift for finding and sharing fascinating facts, I bow to Diane Ackerman. The Natural History of the Senses is a provocative and irresistible work. And if I were Dr. Frankenstein and could merge Hiaasen and Ackerman, I might create someone like David Foster Wallace. Wallace’s essays are perkier than a debutant on crack, and his use of footnotes to allow us entree into his semi-twisted mind is a fun trademark of his work. Finally, I hope my love of and concern for nature comes through just a smidgen as well as the now classic works of Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey. Although Stegner and Abbey wrote with vastly difference voices, they agreed on much regarding the importance of conservation and the foibles of government agencies whose missions were to manage natural lands.

I chose Hookers with PhDs: And Other Juxtapositions as the title essay for two reasons. First, the title rolls nicely off the tongue and makes for interesting cover art. No hookers were bought, sold or harmed in the creation of this book. More importantly, however, the topic of the title essay is juxtaposition, a theme that runs throughout all of the essays. If curiosity is my fuel, juxtaposition is one of my favorite text engines. I hope you enjoy the collection.