I have been a storyteller since I was a child, making-up plays for my sisters and friends. I started writing professionally during the summer after my freshman year of college when I landed my first paid journalism gig. My debut article was about a local boy who drowned in a nearby lake. Little did I know, this was the start for my love of crime-writing.

Well... that and the fact that I grew up around death investigation. My father was the county Medical Examiner and kept his office in our home. Besides a few nightmares and therapy sessions, my childhood has also given me some very uncanny experiences for my storytelling. To round out my death investigation knowledge, I went back to school and completed over 360 hours of CSI training. I wouldn't dare call myself a forensic professional; but it's definitely a serious hobby. As a result, my first non-fiction book, Forensic Speak, will hit the shelves in 2013 via Michael Wiese Publishing.

Since that first macabre article for my hometown paper, I've published more than 100 articles, written short films and documentaries, penned a children's book, and scribed a dozen film and TV scripts.

Recently, I've been invited with my two co-writers into Humanitas' New Voices Program where we'll be developing our half-hour comedy pilot, Home Bodies. My family feature script, Mulberry Lane is optioned with Fools Errand Films and placed in the top ten percent out of 5800 entries at the Austin Screenplay Competition 2011. In the same competition, my TV drama pilot, The Coroner's Daughter, also placed in the top ten percent. Before that I was a semi-finalist in NBC's Writers on the Verge with a one-hour procedural spec.

When not writing, you might find me in the classroom. Not only learning, but teaching. I've taken teaching assignments since my grad school days. The hardest class I ever taught was 8th grade history. I barely managed to stay one step ahead of those kids. My favorite subject to teach is rhetoric. Rhetorwhat? (It's a fancy way of saying communication arts.) I can't help the nerd in me. I spent my graduate days with master rhetoricians: Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero; and they really rubbed off on me.

For fun I like participating in good causes, running races, and eating stuff with friends. In my down time, my activity of choice is lying under a blanket on the couch with my AppleTV remote. I live in LA, but have pieces of my heart scattered throughout Vermont, Phoenix, Michigan, and Chicago. I've been married to my best friend, Ryan, since the OJ Simpson trial started in LA and gasoline cost $1.09/gallon. Since that time, we've successfully raised four wiener dogs, moved 8 times, and remodeled 3 homes. I believe in the Oxford comma, that variety is the spice of life, and that there's something sanctifying about getting your hands dirty.

Visit my: IMDb and Twitter page!

Links: Fools Errand Films, Humanitas - New Voices Prize, Michael Wiese Publishing, Picadilly