Inspirations

My writing is inspired by real life relationships — and how they influence our lives — in the moment and over time. The transformative power of relationships — for better and worse — fascinates me. Family relationships are typically a catalyst for my writing, but also relationships between friends, work colleagues or even casual acquaintances. My writing is not typically a nonfiction first-hand account of these relationships — I write short stories and am now working on a novel that is informed by relationships I’ve been part of or observed.

During my first few years of writing, I wrote personal essays that told these stories — each theme lent itself to several different tellings — the overall big picture stories, excerpts, from different points of view. As my writing evolved, I became less interested in a literal retelling of these events and more interested in how I could use these themes in fiction — first with short stories and now in a novel.