Aundria

I took this idea from my good friends Gaby ~ Finding my way back and Elle - on hiatus . I spend so much time with my friends here, it's fun to more about them. So if anyone wants the nitty gritty, this is your place. Great idea girls!

This is a picture of me in 2016 at age 42

Family

That's a big subject. I come from a family of 5 girls. I am the middle child and definitely have middle child syndrome. My sisters are very accomplished, and I can't believe I'm related to them. #1 is the ghost writer for a former congressman and her books have appeared on The NY Times bestseller list. #2 is a Landscape Architect who teaches classes at expos and has given a TED talk. #4 is a Pharmacist and a great photographer in her spare time, and #5 is a middle school teacher and director of their ballroom dance team. Not intimidating at all. But they are all amazing women and I am so privileged to be related to them. I don’t know how I got so lucky. We all live within 20 miles of each other and we all get along beautifully. Our children are close with their cousins and we have family get togethers often. Sadly, my mother passed away in December 2020 and things have not been the same since.

I was married 3 weeks after my 18th birthday. My poor mother! We have now been married for over 30 years and have 4 children of our own. Keziah, is 28 and is a gifted artist blessed with synesthesia which is truly an artists dream. She is a daycare provider working with infants and loves every minute of it Kylee is 26 She is a makeup specialist for Lancome and Nordstrom She’s given me a gorgeous granddaughter (Demi) and is currently working on #2. Natalie is 22 and just received a BFA in musical theater at Southern Utah University. She is living with us while she starts her new life Robin is 19 and is also still figuring things out. Born a girl (Hailey) They have recently come out as trans with a new name and pronoun. It’s quite the adjustment, It’s taking us a while to adjust but we’ll get there. Do I sound like a proud bragging, mother or what? But if I can’t do it in a bio, where can I?

Those Crazy Teen Years!

It's a bit of a cliché I guess, but my teen years were some of the best and worst of my life. When I was 13, I began Ballroom Dance Training. At 16, after 3 years of training and competitions, I was lucky enough to represent my country at the Blackpool Dance Festival   in Blackpool, England. It was one of the highlights of my life. However, we trained 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, and I lost interest in High School. Needless to say the only classes I cared about were my writing classes. I took honors English, creative writing, college prep writing and journalism. I was also an editor for both the school newspaper and literary magazines. To this day, I can't remember a single teacher from HS, except my writing teachers. They were such great teachers and truly inspired me to write and helped me discover a hidden talent.

When I returned from England, I decided to take a break from dance and give community theater a try. I auditioned for a production of "Brigadoon" and landed the dancer's part of "Maggie Anderson". I had no lines, but it was a principal part. My character was the unrequited love of the villain "Harry Beaton". Luckily, the guy I was supposed to be in love with was pretty cute. Good thing too because he's now my husband. Pretty cool How we met story, huh?

Basic Stats

I was born on August 17, 1974. I'm 5'2 and thankfully am very comfortable in heels since I spent so much of my teen years dancing them. I have brow...blonde hair and blue eyes. I enjoy dressing nice, and will not leave the house without my hair and makeup done. But, I'm usually at home so I look grungy. No makeup and messy hair. It's just easier. Sadly, since I don't get out much, I even gussy up to go the grocery store. Yea! I can get out of the house!

My Daily Life

I was a stay-at-home mom when my kids were little and my husband is a mortgage loan officer. Luckily, since the pandemic, he is able to work from home as well. This leaves us a time spend with our granddaughter, Demi. We watch her two days a week. It makes putting up with teenagers so worth it I wish I could’ve done that first.

In 2002, on a company vacation to Cabo San Lucas I had an accident. On the first day we took an ATV tour. Unfortunately, I had an accident and hit my head really hard. My other injuries required me to take an air ambulance to San Diego where I spent 4 days in the hospital. Ironically, we didn't know then that my head injury was severe and would change my life forever.

I began having seizures shortly after that, and have suffered from a seizure disorder ever since. This has resulted in the loss of my driver's license. It caused me to become practically homebound, which was a blessing and a curse. We didn’t have Lyft or Uber then. So my children missed out on a lot of fun things like swimming lessons and going to the mall. It's amazing how simple things aren't as simple as you think. You don't realize how much freedom you really have until it's gone.

I can't be spontaneous and have to plan everything out ahead of time. If it isn't on the schedule or the list, it probably isn't going to happen. It was because of this however, that I rediscovered writing. My daughter started all day school, and suddenly I had nothing to do with my time, and no where to go. Now what? When going through my closets on a long boring day, I found some of the writing I had done in High School, and rediscovered my love of it. Ironically, many of my awarded poems were written when I was in HS. I'm so glad I kept it. Who Knew?

I do suffer from depression and anxiety but I I have discovered many of you suffer from mental illness as well. It seems to be pretty common with us writers. Perhaps that's why we do what we do. We are always questioning ourselves and looking into the meaning of and heart of our issues. Because of this, we are much better at putting words to feelings and showing the world a new way of looking at things. So, I guess I should find a way to be grateful.

WDC

I've been on WDC for almost 10 years now. When I began my writing journey, I had no idea where I wanted to go with it. Ironically, my fuzzy goal was to find and write stories for genealogists that read as fiction. But, I didn't really know the end result. Was I going to write just one story per ancestor? Did I want to write several stories over the course of their lives? What was I planning to do with the stories once they were written? Who would want to read them?

So, I went in search of help with writing to get some semblance of order. As many of you did, I typed in "writing" on the internet and volia, WDC entered my life and it hasn't been the same since. But as I began my journey, I found that although my goal was short stories, poetry kept flowing from my pen. So I stuck with it and began entering contests. I won one of the first contests I entered and my confidence began to grow. Before I knew it, I had won several in the first few months here.

Then, out of the blue, I was contacted by a poetry editor for the e-zine "Shadows Express". Not only did they ask if they could publish my piece, they also asked if I would consider becoming a poetry editor as well for their e-zine! Holy Crap! When I joined this site, I never expected to be published. In fact, that was NEVER one of my goals. Especially in poetry. I was honored to assist them until we closed in September. Thank you to some of my co-editors Liam , mystic_dreams , and Winnie Kay for offering me such a wonderful opportunity. It was an honor to work with them, and I am truly grateful for their confidence in me. I have since had 3 more pieces published. This story just goes to show that you never know who is reading your work, and that you never know what is possible until you try.

I have made many good friends. The first friend and mentor I made here was 💟Crissy~Hijacked . Because of her friendship and kindness, I found my voice. It is because of her that I am the leader of the "Invalid Item" . I want to do for newbies what was done for me. I hope to provide them a way to succeed.

I have become very active here and it keeps me busy. I am:

Founder of "Roots & Wings Contest"  and "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest" 
Co-leader and founder of "Roots & Wings Group"  along with my great friend Elle - on hiatus And I I have won 2 quills from the "The Quills" .

I love WDC and all the great friends I have made here that are too numerous to list. I find time often gets away from me. My pen name is inspired by my favorite quote which I found early on in my writing adventure, and which has special meaning to me due to my ultimate goals.

Well, I hope this gives you some info about me that you didn't know. Since I seem to be closer to you guys than a lot of people in my life, I thought I'd give you some background. Thank you again to Elle - on hiatus and Gaby ~ Finding my way back for this great idea. I hope more of you do this. I'd love to know more about you guys too. I'm forgetful due to my epilepsy, so having somewhere to re-read about you to remind myself would be really helpful. I'm looking forward to continued and new relationships with you all. You guys rock!