ABOUT
hello! i’m Mikki
writer, reader, & constant dreamer
I was raised in Arizona, the fifth of six daughters in a family obsessed with storytelling. My sisters and I grew up on the strongest of heroines–Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, and Little Women. We were also a family that appreciated a great story around the dinner table: “Guess what happened at school today . . .”
I wrote my first books in third grade. Only a few, and they were about five pages long, had no real plot, and were stapled together, but you have to start somewhere, right?
As I grew into my teens, I stopped writing as dancing and cello became my creative passions. I still obsessed over great stories but I was a consumer rather than a producer.
When I was in college, I started out as an English major but quickly changed my focus when I learned that I’d have to take a creative writing class. I know, I know. Psychoanalyze that fun fact all you want. I switched over to an International Politics major (don’t make fun of me). It didn’t land me a great job, but I met my future husband through one of the classes (a great story for another time) and later on would call upon some of that knowledge when inserting international political intrigue into my stories.
After I was married and raising four little ones, I had an epiphany one day while my youngest napped. Rather than just escaping into books, I wanted to become a part of the storytelling world.
The problem was that I didn’t know how to write a story. (Remember when I dropped the English major once I found out about the creative writing class?) I began reading all the craft books I could get my hands on. I sent snippets of writing out to online critique groups so that I could have my precious words ripped to shreds by strangers, instead of by people I knew and would have to face in person. Then I heard about writing conferences and my husband encouraged me to attend. “Eighty percent of success is just showing up,” he told me. He was right. I found a great community of writers and now have an awesome critique group, thanks to these conferences.
We moved from Texas to Utah, and I began to enter my writing into contests. I won awards for “best first chapter” and was selected to participate in Pitch Wars in 2016. I won other pitch contests, too, but it was cold, hard querying that finally landed me my incredible agent.
I continue to hone my craft, writing mostly Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. I write other things, too, but I always drift off-planet for my favorite stories. Give me action, romance, and a compelling character arc against the inky backdrop of glittering space–THAT is a worthy story, in my opinion!
My current project is about a troubled teenage empress born to keep the peace while hiding a power made for war. When a vengeful warlord crashes her coronation and threatens to take over her empire, she must fight her inner demons as she teams up with an unlikely ally to take back her throne and save her people.
I’m represented by the lovely Laura Bradford at the Bradford Literary Agency, and I’m excited to introduce my books to the world soon!
