I tell stories.
Not to be confused with lies – although I’m beginning to dabble in a lil fiction – nonetheless informative, entertaining or simply engaging.
Before I started penning personal stories, news and entertainment pieces and a bit of short fiction, I spent nearly 15 years in finance and telecommunications. But I'm pretty sure I was only in it for my traveling, eating out, and shopping fund because I found that I really wasn't 'bout that daily crunching-numbers-on-an-Excel-spreadsheet life.
In 2010, I started a blog to channel my inner foodie. The Food Network, Top Chef and bon appétit didn’t discover me, though.
Two years later, I launched The Skinny DC Writer (now Pencil and Chalk) to write about my thoughts and observations on culture, books, life... But I ended up more of a lifestyle writer. My work has been published online at xoNecole, Clutch Magazine, and xoJane, and I grabbed the attention of editors at The Root, Huff Post Live and Whole Living magazine. (Woot! Woot!)
However, Pencil and Chalk has undergone somewhat of an overhaul, after all, we do grow and evolve, right? Some things that I wrote aren’t e’en here anymore; they’re obsolete and irrelevant or they were a misrepresentation of how I want to show up, who I want to be, authentically, as a published writer.
In this next phase of my writing career, I want to use my voice, eyes and ears mainly for personal essays – which may still include references to books, TV, film and the like – and original reporting/longer-form pieces to enlighten members of my community and further enrich our conversations.
When I'm not clickety-clacking on my laptop or killing trees with my notebook scribbles, I’m usually sipping rosé, immersing myself in a great book, perusing a virtual stack of magazines on Apple News+, attempting to binge all the shows on all the platforms or scrolling my feeds until my phone falls flat on my forehead.
BTW, follow me on Twitter Threads and the 'gram. But just know spamming and trolling will get you blocked and reported.
