In this ongoing series, we ask SF/F authors to describe a specialty in their lives that has nothing (or very little) to do with writing. Join us as we discover what draws authors to their various hobbies, how they fit into their daily lives, and how and they inform the author’s literary identity!

While writing is the core of my artistic life, I live a renaissance one. I have devoted education, passion and countless hours to nearly every aspect of the arts since as early as I can remember and have worked in the arts in varied degrees of professional capacity since I was a teen.

When asked what I’d do if I wasn’t focusing on writing, I say I’d go back to the stage and resume the classical and Shakespearean career that I set aside because my Strangely Beautiful series was more important. Thankfully, writing novels has been keeping me too busy to run the audition gauntlet. Still, doing something physical is an important way for me to access my full artistic capacity and often helps with any walls I’ve written myself up against. My extensive theatrical training shapes how I think about and craft stories, but that’s a broad connection.

In terms of specificity, I hadn’t thought an ancillary artistic pursuit would affect the way I thought about, say, my books’ magic systems, until I started making jewelry.

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