Get to know me!

Sally had an idyllic childhood in Cheshire, Conn. where she lived in a white farmhouse surrounded by trees and a lush green lawn.

“My most vivid memory is of the summer parties out on the lawn with croquet and badminton, multi-colored Chinese paper lanterns hanging from the trees, the smell of citronella candles as the night drew near.”

Her dad had a home cabinet-making business and she remembers fondly his coming home for lunch daily and helping her build little projects of her own.

“Having had that time with my parents is a treasure beyond words. But I was an only child, a loner and all around spooky kid with a fascination with the supernatural.  Early out-of-body experiences made me realize that the physical world is only a fraction of what actually exists.”

“Throughout school I was an artist and dancer. Sometimes I think the main thing I wanted in life was to be Isadora Duncan.”

She attended Florida State University in Tallahassee and began as a Dance major, then got practical and switched to Graphic Design, finally graduating from University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in Art.

Early writing influences were: Ray Bradbury (R is for Rocket), Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land and Friday), Herman Hesse (Steppenwolf and Demian), Anais Nin (Cities of the Interior), D.H. Lawrence (Lady Chatterly’s Lover), Collette (Cheri and The Rainy Moon), Lawrence Durrell (Justine), William Shakespeare (The Tempest), Isadora Duncan’s autobiography, My Life.

More recent influences are: Lucy Taylor (Unnatural Acts), Tannith Lee (Dark Dance), Donald Barthelme (Overnight to Many Distant Cities), Andrei Codrescu (The Blood Countess), Nicholson Baker (Vox and The Fermata), Mark Danielewski (House of Leaves).

“I feel as though I carry all of these writers around inside of me.  The books I read at an early age had a profound effect upon my view of the world.”

“We exist on many levels, and have multiple shadow personalities.  Especially writers, who have all of our characters living within us.  I am equally the satanic male magician; the child who has lethal dust bunnies living under his bed; the teenage girl who, dabbling in the black arts, finds herself possessed; and the boy who finds the gateway to an alien dimension in his back yard.

“The scariest things are subtle. When you’re alone at two am you might feel something touch the back of your hair and get a chill throughout your whole body, or see an unnatural shadow floating behind you in the mirror.

“I am inexplicably drawn to the dark side, mainly because it is so much fun. People need an escape from their daily reality. I like writing YA because young people are grappling with identity issues and teenage angst. In many ways I still strongly relate.”

Sally recently earned a Master of Arts Degree in Creative Writing from Seton Hill University in Greensburgh, Pennsylvania.