I’m the author of the upcoming YA dystopian-ish novel, Variant, which will be released October 18, 2011 from HarperTeen.

I began writing professionally (and poorly) as the theater critic (live theater, not film) for Red Magazine, an arts weekly at the University of Utah, in 1999. I started writing my first novel shortly thereafter, and it was terrible.

My first published novel, On Second Thought, was released in 2004 through a regional press. That book was a romantic comedy based on a small town in New Mexico where I lived for about a year. I followed that book with two more, Wake Me When It’s Over and The Counterfeit, both political thrillers and both attempts to use my poli-sci degree for something, since it definitely wasn’t getting me a job in the field.

Because it wasn’t getting me a job, I returned to graduate school in 2007 and got an MBA in marketing at Brigham Young University. With a background in sociology, I developed a great love for the squishier sides of business–particularly consumer psychology and behavior. I split my time between homework and writing, and it was during this time that I decided I wanted to write YA for the national market.

And, when I graduated in 2009 with the stock market at record lows, and I once again couldn’t find a job, I spent my unemployment writing Variant.