Meet the Novel Novice staff:
Sara (Sara | Novel Novice)
Sara works in the TV news business in the Portland, Oregon area, and has a Bachelor of Arts in English. Having a been an avid reader since childhood, Sara loves encouraging a love of reading amongst others — which helped inspire her to launch Novel Novice in January 2010! Sara also writes for Examiner.com as the Portland Books Examiner and the Hunger Games Examiner. She is also the Young Adult/Children’s Author Coordinator for Portland’s Wordstock Festival. Sara has always loved getting lost in a good book, and is known for chronically staying up too late reading.
Steph (Stephanie)
In a past life, Stephanie earned her BA in English and MA in English with a concentration in Professional Writing & Editing. She has taught classes at the college level and has been a copy editor/paginator at several newspapers in Ohio. In her current life, she’s a stay-at-home mom in Mobile, Alabama. She is also vice president of the Mobile Writers Guild and is querying her YA novel.
Taylor (Miss Librarian)
Taylor is a Children’s & Young Adult Librarian at the Montgomery City-County Public Library. Her interests include YA lit, reference, instruction and technology. She comes from a Secondary Education and English background, and has dreamed of becoming a YA author since reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak for the YSU English Festival in high school. Taylor believes there is something out there for everyone to read, and it’s her personal mission to find something that interests every reluctant reader. In addition to her passion for reading, Taylor also enjoys art, scrapbooking, and spending time with her amazing family.
Tiffany (mstruitt)
Tiffany is the founder of Novel Novice’s sister site, Novel Novice Twilight. She teaches middle school literature. Her debut YA dystopian novel will be released in March 2012 from Entangled Publishing. You can follow her adventures as a new author on her website.
Novel Novice Contributors
Elena (starburstandskittle) – Middle Grade Book Reviews
Elena is Novel Novice’s Middle Grade reviewer. Elena is 11 years old and she is in 5th grade. She LOVES to read and adores her pet guinea pig and gerbil. She also draws and paints a lot.
Christie (addicted2edward) – Writing Prompts & Read-a-Longs
Christie loved reading and writing as a child, but when high school came along, a love for computer programming led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. It seemed the only books she read anymore were those involving databases and programming languages.
It wasn’t until 2004 that Christie, now a stay at home mom, started reading fiction again thanks to Harry Potter, but it was when she picked up Twilight in 2008 that reading really came back to life for her. Novel Novice Twilight introduced Christie to fan fiction, and she hasn’t looked back since. She joined Project Team Beta in 2009 to help other Twilight fan fiction writers edit and improve their stories. Also in 2009, Christie joined the staff of Novel Novice Twilight with a focus on the fan fiction challenges.
Christie lives in Maryland with her husband and two children. In between taking care of her family, reading, and writing, she enjoys scrapbooking and needlework, as well as decorating the occasional cake or carving the occasional pumpkin.
Amanda (amandaleighf) – Contributor
Amanda Flaker is a freelance writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. She studied literature and writing at Portland State University and is entering the Book Publishing MA program at PSU in January. She has worked in the wine industry for six years, and aside from traveling and writing about adventures in the world of well-crafted vino, she prefers to loose herself in the universe of YA and children’s literature. She is often found in coffee shop nooks, reading poetry and studying Italian.
Laurie (hooviesmom) – Contributing Book Reviewer
Laurie is Sara’s mom and isn’t a “real” staff member. She just pops in to write a couple reviews when she absconds with books from her daughter’s house. Laurie has been a voracious reader for many years, and used to read books aloud to Sara back before Sara learned to read for herself.
Jana (janachick) – Chick Lit Book Reviews
There’s nothing quite like curling up with a fabulous piece of chick lit, and for the last 8 years- while getting her degree in Literary Journalism from the University of California, Irvine, and taking on various writing gigs, tackling everything from weddings to real estate- that is exactly what Jana has been doing. It all started in high school, when she was turned on to two pioneering chick lit authors- Jennifer Weiner and Jane Green- during a particularly inspirational Weight Watcher’s meeting. Ever since, Jana has fallen in love with the captivating female voices and relatable tales these and other writers have churned out year after year. Don’t have a clue what chick lit is, much less why you should start reading it? Stay tuned…
Libby (libbyann) – Poetry
Libby is a freelance writer and editor located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and communications and an MFA in creative writing with a poetry concentration. When not working on her freelance writing services or producing web content about relationships, marketing, parenting, education, fashion, and finances, this book woman tries to squeeze in precious time to devour novels, memoirs, and poetry collections and, of course, write her own verse.
Stephanie (artistephie) – Desktop Wallpapers/Graphics
Stephanie is a graphic designer from Ohio. She’s always been interested in art, music, and other creative avenues. She love movies, and probably watches more TV than is healthy on a regular basis, but is incapable of resisting the charms of her favorite shows. She also has her own personal library. Books and reading are the perfect escape for her, so she has this addiction to purchasing any book that captures her interest in the store. On a similar note, she loves to write, which is how she fell into the world of fan fiction. And she loves shopping – it’s a great stress reliever. She also has a fabulously fun Yorkshire terrier-poodle mix named Bella, and it is a testament to the Twilight Saga’s popularity that most people always assume her namesake is the heroine of the series. And of course, that is the case.
Billy (bjbarth) – Graphic Novels & Comic Books
Billy is a Marketing and Publicity specialist for the Department of Defense. When he is not working on marketing for the government, he enjoys reading fiction, graphic novels, web design and learning new things. He live with his wife Taylor (Miss Librarian), son Gideon, and dog Ebony in Alabama.
Joe (joeonthego) – Graphic Novels & Comic Books
Joe Vithayathil is a Renaissance Nerd.
His interests include Comic Books, Movies, Regular Books, Video Games, Simpsons Quotes and obscure 1980s Professional Wrestling Matches. He also just finished reading a book about John Quincy Adams, and finds him to be the most fascinating inconsequential president of all time.
Joe’s introduction to comics came from the talented Larry Hama, the man behind Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Raptor the Amazing Bird Man. Joe devoured his stories throughout most of the 80s, pausing only to catch the occasional “Macho Man” Randy Savage steel cage match.
Joe is now a grown man with one wife, two children, and zero interest in maturation. He inhales several graphic novels every week, and drives his wife insane with a comic book collection that keeps growing and growing.
When Joe is not acting like a geek at home, he is doing so on television. You can catch his nerdy shenanigans on Good Day Oregon (Monday through Friday on KPTV Fox 12! End of Shameless Plug.).
Whenever he can get a break from changing dirty diapers, Joe will share his thoughts on graphic novels, comics and the occasional comic-movie adaptation. He is still coming to grips with the fact that Jon Hamm will not be playing the Green Lantern.
Sandy – Video Book Reviews
