LJ Chat, Day One, Post One

Originally posted 11/17/2011 in the Circlet Press Livejournal

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Good morning to everyone in LJ land!

I’m sitting here at my local Starbucks, because I’m THAT kind of writer. The one who occasionally has to go write in the coffeeshop. (and if any of you follow my Twitter, you know that I’m actually FREEZING at the Starbucks. They have their AC set to Arctic, and it’s starting to get painful. I might just bag and go home and write there this morning).

I’ll go more into why I’m THAT kind of writer tomorrow, maybe. Over the next couple of days, I’ll talk about Princes of Air, about writing that novel, and about writing in general. I’ll talk about being a writing mom, and about balance. And you’ll get excerpts from Princes of Air, a contest or two, and the SOOPER SEKRIT PROJECT I’ve been talking about in my Facebook and my blog.

But for now, we’ll start with the just who the heck Elizabeth Schechter is, anyway.

Elizabeth Schechter was born in New York at some point in the past. She is officially old enough to know better, but refuses to grow up. She has been, at various points in her life, a jeweler, an artist, a counselor, a minister, a fitness instructor, a singer, counter-person in a coffee-shop, a lab tech, a research assistant, quarter-staff master, a daycare worker, a high school English teacher, a kindergarten teacher, a stay-at-home-mom, an editor and a writer. She firmly believes in the Heinlein adage that specialization is for insects, and is still working on the tinker, tailor, soldier and spy parts of the list.

Elizabeth started writing in grade school, mostly for her own amusement. Her first novel was written while a student at the Bronx High School of Science, where she was regularly accosted before class by her friends, who were looking for the next chapter. She still has that manuscript somewhere, and readily admits that it is absolute and complete crap, but one must start somewhere.

Writing got pushed to the sidelines for a good number of years, until Elizabeth got involved in a play-by-email role-playing game that was completely story driven. That game rekindled her love of writing, and she teamed up with another player to further explore the lives of their characters. That exploration turned into a planned series of novels, of which the first two are complete.

Once Elizabeth started writing again, she found that she couldn’t stop. A friend pointed out an open call for submissions for a Circlet anthology themed on the Tarot. She came up with an idea about a most interesting tarot reading that turned into “The Hand You’re Dealt,” her first short story sale.

Elizabeth lives in Central Florida with her husband and son, and a most accepting circle of friends who are both very amused and very proud of the pervy, fetish writer in their midst.