about me

Me…wow…where do I begin? In all honesty there’s not that much to tell. I love to collect movies and dragons (Who needs shoes, anyway?), music of all kinds, love to cook, have a rather unnatural affection for ice cream and I’m completely worthless as a functioning human during hockey season. Love my Carolina Hurricanes! There’s a group of us rabid, foam-at-the-mouth hockey fans and we try to stay contained, but sometimes we escape into public and people stare. Oh, well.

I was born in Winston-Salem, NC in the spring of ’68 and led a pretty normal childhood…or so I thought. My family always knew I had a vivid imagination, but they didn’t understand how best to encourage me to cultivate it. As I grew older, I exercised that imagination with creative writing in school. I had an inkling that I was on the right track my senior year of high school when, after writing an assigned essay about what current event had affected me the most, all of my classmates received their papers back…I didn’t. My teacher, wonderful person that she was, decided to discuss the topic in class and used my paper as a catalyst for a heated debate on censorship in music and literature. (The movie ‘Footloose’ was really popular back then and Tipper Gore was trying to invade everybody’s living room.)

Anyway, between that, poetry and short stories, I’d found an outlet for my youthful angst and burgeoning fantasies. When the all-important question of “What do you want to do with your life?” was asked of me, I was stumped. I was raised to realize that money doesn’t grow on trees and you need to do something practical with your skills to keep yourself alive. If you don’t have any viable skills, go to a short-term technical school, learn one and get your butt in the work world. OK…so…what do I want to learn?

I tried to learn to be a travel agent, but school didn’t count as two years experience. I did retail. That’s easy but they don’t need people who think on their own. Well…most of them don’t. Went to work for a Chiropractor and earned my certification as a Chiropractic Assistant. Rewarding emotionally and physically, I’ve never been healthier in my life, but financially…not so much. So I did the temp thing. I found a job as a receptionist, but I didn’t really have a lot to do other than answer the phone. I knew that reading a book at the front desk would probably get me booted out, so I turned on the computer and, in order to look productive, proceeded to write one.

Wham! Epiphany! This is fun! These really great people moved into my conscious from the shadows and took over. I feel like a sports commentator doing play by play. And I never knew I had it in me to create these lives and personalities with hopes, dreams, loves and tragedies. They have the same kinds of emotional baggage that we do: fear, pain, laughter and peace, just to mention a few. I laughed, cried; ran the gamut of human emotion with the velocity of a speeding roller coaster, feeling their love and loss, laughter and pain. These imaginary playmates, as my mother calls them, have become some of the best friends I’ve ever had. Just like my real friends and family, I love them, hate them, laugh and cry with them.

I’ve discovered many things as a writer. One of which is that anything is possible and never stop doing what comes naturally. Who cares if no one else likes it as long as it makes you think when you read it. Another is that there are seven words in an author’s vocabulary that have the deepest meaning: ‘The End’ and “I couldn’t put it down.”

I’ve written a story that I want to read and if others who read it have half as much fun with it as I did, I’ve more than accomplished my mission. Enjoy…

You can find me on Facebook or alexandraholbrook@live.com

favourite books

The list if far too extensive to post here. Suffice to say it's really long. I'll name a few...

My long time favorites are:

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Shirlee Busbee
Susan Carroll
Ann Rice
Diana Gabaldon
Sandra Hill
J.K. Rowling
Virginia Henley
Bertrice Small

Lately, I've been reading:

Karen Marie Moning
J.R. Ward
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Lynsay Sands
Mary-Janice Davidson
Katie MacAllister

my websites

http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookStoreSear