I BELIEVE IN:
Breakfast food (good coffee matters, but who you drink it with matters more), radical honesty, and writing that gets under your skin.
I’M NOT ABOUT:
Should statements. People who say one thing and do another.
YOU CAN FIND ME:
Creatively collaborating. Reading on the beach. At the park with my dog. Forgetting all my passwords.
DAILY RITUALS:
Twenty layers of skin care. I'd like to add more. My days can get improvisational and play out like jazz.
My Origin Story
In 2010, I quit my corporate job (along with my excellent health insurance) because a psychic told me my future at writing school was “written in the stars.” Ludicrously, I kind of believed her.
I hadn’t even applied to MFA programs yet, but I told my boss I was leaving to pursue a creative writing degree anyway. Minor cosmic detail.
One year later, I was at The New School, sitting next to a woman who would become my best friend—and the person who would later suggest I try literary agenting. (She already had a glamorous coffee-fetching gig in the industry herself). One night, after a few glasses of wine and a bleary-eyed Craigslist search, I found a listing for a listing for an agency assistant and applied. My first job in book publishing started the following Monday.
I have since spent twelve years helping writers find their voices, their editors, and their audiences—first at Wendy Sherman Associates, then at Irene Goodman Literary Agency. I sold bestselling books. I built careers. I learned the phrases like “getting my ducks in a row” and “not in my wheelhouse” and used them like a champ.
Then, in 2019, I realized it wasn’t fair that only a few authors with large platforms had access to the kind of book coaching that agents offer. How far, I wondered, could any aspiring writer go if they just knew these secrets? Along with Margaret Danko, my partner-in-crime (and by crime, I mean Google Slides), I launched Live Your Bestseller Life as an engine for transparency an antidote to echo-chamber fueled sameness. It was a clunky online rollout with just a handful of hopeful writers, but it was exhilarating to see that I was right: if more folks knew these insider publishing tips, they too would be able to write great books. Plus, I said to Margaret, “I think this Zoom thing is really going to take off.”
Then, in 2023, I co-founded High Line Literary Collective with Victoria Marini. You can read more about that side-hustle here.
I’ve never looked back—though occasionally, I do check in with the psychic.
