About Me
Hello! My name is Alyssa, and this is my little corner of the internet. I'm a 30 year old Organismal Biologist, and I enjoy writing and going to thrift stores and taking pictures of the strange items I find. I started grooming dogs in the summer of 2017 and I continue to learn more all the time. I recently graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelors in Organismal Biology and a concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.
I've been obsessed with animals for as far back as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories involve weaving dramatic stories with my Beanie Babies and plastic animal families. When I was in the seventh grade, my science teacher played Planet Earth for the class, and I fell in love immediately. It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school, however, when I took a Zoology course offered by my school, that it really clicked with me: studying animals was something I could do for a living. I became hell-bent on finding a college that offered a degree in Zoology, which later became Organismal Biology, and found my place at Auburn. My major has a concentration in evolution, ecology, and behavior, which means my studies are focused on the how and why animals evolved, how they interact with their surroundings, and the specifics of their behavior. At the moment, my interests include animal intelligence (particularly in birds, great apes, and cephalopods), ethology, and the evolution of birds.
Just as animals have always been a part of my life, so has storytelling. And my favorite stories have always been those separated in some way from our current reality. My favorite escapes were to the past, to the future, or to entirely different worlds. Just as I loved to read those stories, I loved to write them. Roleplaying forums became the best outlet for my creativity, able to make stories up on the fly, working with another person to make something completely new, a world of our own.
The idea for The Changeling's Daughter came to me one day in math class. I was half-listening to the lesson, aimlessly doodling shapes on my worksheet. Eventually several of those shapes came together and I saw a young woman. She was tall, dressed in an ankle-length skirt and a top hat, and smoking a cigarette. I named her Sarah, and slowly she revealed her story to me. I met her friends, Jamie and Cory, and catalogued everything I learned. I knew I wanted to wait for NaNoWriMo to start my story, so I purposefully refrained from writing anything more than backstory. Come November, I began to write feverishly, and quickly realized this was going to be more than a one-month ordeal. Telling her story has become a part of my own, and I'm dedicated to seeing it through.
As an animal lover, it makes sense that I would live with some of my own. I live with my dog, Piper, a shepherd/pit mix who is, in my totally unbiased opinion, perfect, and my four cats - Newton, Theo, Evie, and George - because I enjoy a challenge.
Pets
Credits
The stock images used to create the header for this layout are courtesy of hellotherelily on deviantART, and the backgrounds are from Subtle Patterns.