I was born and raised in Riverside, California, which is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Growing up, I played a lot of sports, including volleyball and tennis. But perhaps my biggest claim to early fame was winning the Fourth Grade Jacks Tournament at my elementary school. I still have the certificate to prove it.
My first job out of college, where I majored in comparative literature, was as a copyeditor/proofreader for a law book publisher. There, I spent my days proofing legal statute numbers and changing "which" to "that." Life didn't get much better when I next took a job editing a medical magazine on parenteral and enteral nutrition—translation: feeding tubes!
My career turned around when I landed a job as an editor at 'TEEN magazine in Los Angeles, working on the Sunset Strip across from Tower Records and next door to Spago restaurant. There I wrote features and an advice column, escorted the magazine's Great Model Search finalists around Hollywood, and learned the mysteries to burning beauty questions such as, "What's a loofah?"
After leaving 'TEEN, I decided to try show business. I worked for two years as a writer/producer for the reality TV show "The Love Connection," where couples went on TV to dish the dirt about their dates. After bouncing around the industry for a few more years, I produced two reality show pilots for Fox TV, one marrying couples, the other, breaking up couples (don't worry—not the same couples).
In recent years, I've worked as a freelance writer. My articles have appeared in Sassy, YM, Parenting, Baby Talk, Woman's World, American Baby, Women's Sports & Fitness, among other publications.
I've also written 10 non-fiction books for teens and pre-teens on topics ranging from fashion to party planning to dream interpretation. I once even wrote a book called 50 Nifty Frightening Things to Do and Make for Halloween, which is ironic because I'm totally crafts phobic and can barely tape together two pieces of paper—let alone create a papier mache spider or a popsicle stick graveyard!
With the publication of the Zibby
Payne series, I am realizing my lifelong dream of becoming a fiction author.
I first conceived of the idea for the series when my daughter, now 13, was in second grade and a radical tomboy. She only wore boy clothes and sported a little Dutch boy haircut -- the closest I'd let her come to cutting her hair up past her ears.
She was also a voracious reader. At age 8, she'd already read through almost all of the books written for her age group. I simply didn't know what else to give her to read. So I figured, I could write a story for my daughter and girls like her.
Ironically
my daughter is now too old for the book, even though she
does serve as an editor—and a very picky one at that—letting
me know which phrases and plot points are "lame" and
which are "pretty cool." I
hope there's a legion of eager readers 7 - 10 who will find
the Zibby Payne books a fun (and
meaningful) read.
I live in South Pasadena, California with my husband, Jim, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and my three children. My daughter is the inspiration behind Zibby, but all three of my children inspire me each and every day.
