I’ve been writing since I was a kid. My first publication (in my high school newspaper) was a bleak adaptation of “The Three Little Pigs.” I wrote it in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, and it was replete with words I culled from a paperback copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, words like ascertain and aghast. My version was gorier than the original. At the end, the most intelligent of the three pigs not only conquers the Big Bad Wolf but also feasts on his fellow pigs. They were already dead. Why waste good meat? (If you’re a vegetarian, please don’t hold this against me. I was young.)

When you’re in high school, adults don’t encourage you to pursue a career in writing or editing. “Do something with computers,” they say, or “How about the medical field?” I chose the latter. For more than fifteen years, I worked as a radiology tech in various hospitals and clinics. Then I returned to college in pursuit of an English degree, graduated in 2013, and finally left the medical field for good in 2015.

Since then, I’ve dabbled in work spanning the gamut from dog-walking and teaching radiology students to summarizing medical records and writing insurance reports. I did a three-year stint in client services at a printing company, and I even took care of a few horses with my husband while the owners were away.

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

― Henry David Thoreau

In the midst of all that, I’ve continued to write for myself, and I’ve edited for other writers. Before I graduated from college, I was the lead copyeditor for issue 66 of Reed, my university’s literary magazine. I helped edit a couple of nonfiction anthologies for PushPen Press: Two@SJSU and Three, in which you’ll find two of my own essays, published under my former name (Tara Phillips). A few years ago, I started freelancing with a company called Scribe Media, and I’ve since gone on to edit and proofread for clients of my own and with companies such as Ballast Books, Big Idea to Bestseller, and Amplify Publishing Group.

I’m still writing my own first book. It’s about lying―lying as in dishonesty, not lying around the house. Although I do carve out plenty of time for lying around the house. Maybe that’s why I haven’t finished my book.

I grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and moved to Turkey for a bit. When I returned to the US, I went on to inhabit a handful of locales. While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I snagged a stellar spouse and dragged him across the country to North Carolina, where we currently abide in a charming 1920s mill house on a sloped acre of land. We have two cats: Mak and Ella. Mak can be kind of a jerk, and Ella tends to keep us awake at night, but it’s all worth it for the side-splitting laughter and joy they bring us. As a side gig, I do some singing in various duos or with my old band, and my husband and I enjoy kayaking, listening to live music, and playing along with the contestants on Jeopardy! as we eat dinner.

Thank you for visiting my site! I look forward to hearing from you, checking out your writing, and discovering whether we’re a good fit to work together.