Who Am I?
An aspiring writer, an auspicious editor, a flourishing designer and desktop publisher: all these things define me and have since become a part of me, even as I grow toward new goals and knowledge. I can never know enough, it seems.

I stumbled into editing during my last year in college, where, by luck and good fortune, I found what I'd been desperately lacking and seeking: a job. And on campus, to boot. Under the mentorship of an incredible professor and friend, I flexed my English-usage knowledge and became a writing counselor, helping other students improve their grammar, style, and structure—carefully leading them toward their much-needed A while trying to demonstrate how my teaching would help them achieve more than a simple grade. I wanted those students to find their writing voice, to warm it up daily, and eventually sing out with well-written prose that could land them successful careers down the road.

Unfortunately, the job ended with college, and I was cast out again into the jobless-but-employment-seeking sea, and took whatever work I could get. Luckily enough, it was a job where I could be surrounded constantly by books, but on the wrong side of them: selling, instead of creating. Still, there are worse things for me than being hugged in by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

But I missed editing. I fervently began searching for a start to what I suddenly knew should be my career, and got another lucky break at a newspaper that was desperate enough to snatch up a girl who had no experience beyond her college education and avid enthusiasm to learn all she could.

In a year I'd learned it, and I was whisked out of Texas to Washington, D.C., to further satisfy my unending desire to know it all, to learn it all, to entrench myself in the book-publishing business until I'd burrowed through one end and out the other—which I accomplished in three years. NASA whisked me away afterward to help with an incredible magazine. And that's where I stand today: living with two cats in an apartment I love, successful, accomplished, and on my way to bigger, brighter things. Which, of course, everyone who knew me stated time and again was my path, though I refused to have such confidence.

With editing, it's essential to be right as often as you can and willing to compromise the "rules" for the rest. Where my friends and family told me I would soar, I am happy enough to compromise and admit they were right. But I still have much to learn.

Where Am I?
Currently I’m living in Alexandria, VA—a place I never thought I’d end up, quite honestly.

I spent most of my youth growing up all over the United States, being moved every year from state to state: Arizona, Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Louisiana. Eventually me and mine settled down happily in Texas, though we seemed to have trouble sticking to one city once we landed ourselves in a state large enough to sate our wandering needs.

From San Antonio to Tyler, just east of Dallas, I’ve managed to live up and down the I-35 corridor. During my last year in the gigantic state, I was living in Tyler and would drive four and a half hours to visit my parents when time allowed—four and a half hours, and I was still in the same state. Now I drive four and a half hours and go through four and a half states, which is still a bit much for me to absorb.

Eventually I hope to end up in Boston, finishing my master's at Boston College and working—finally, hopefully—in book publishing, on the fiction side of things.

Unless a position at Penguin Books' new office opens up in Dublin before then—in which case I'll gladly scrap all these plans and hitch myself across the pond.

Why Logomachy?
To quote the famous, “correct” answer to an urban legend’s trick theology question: “Why not?”

Actually, logomachy, to me, just exhibits my love of words: it in no way supports a theory of superior intellect. This is not a word I grew up knowing. And it isn’t one of those words you just “hear on the street” one day and decide to look up.

No, I stumbled across this jewel when I had free access to the OED online (yes, that is nostalgia you hear).

It amazes me how many words, forgotten or new, actually exist in the English language, and how much contention can be caused by choosing one word over (instead of?) another. The fact that a word exists for a person who argues subtleties of language just proves, if you look long enough, the exact, inarguable word for what you are trying to describe can be found—just like rules for English usage.

English, an amalgamation of so many languages I’ve not bothered to count, is a tricky, messed-up, fluctuating language. We actually take neologisms from marketers, those banes of proper grammar, who toss usage rules out the window for zippy slogans: “We do better more better.”

I’ve learned and continue to learn; I still haven’t memorized every rule, every exception. I strive to, though. With every new thing I learn and to which I can say, “Huh, I didn’t know that,” I’m eager to know just how much more I don’t know.

So I consider myself a logomachist, here to argue the language in order to make the world of print (and Web) correct, precise, and always quirky, with the potential for thousands of authors to find their voices by breaking the "rules" and making new ones.