A few words about myself. I live in my native stomping grounds–the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where I teach writing and literature at my alma mater, Lyndon Institute. I consider myself a teacher who writes, not a writer who teaches. An important distinction.

I sort of stumbled into publishing and have never looked back, though I do tend to spend a lot of time looking in. Most writers spend a lot of time in their heads, with often strange results. (If you ever catch me talking to myself, I’m not crazy–I’m just working out a scene.)

My books are classified as young adult fiction, a trendy form these days. I’m not really sure how I ended up as a YA author. I didn’t consciously pick the genre. Maybe it picked me. I teach high school, after all. To be honest, I’m not really sure what YA means. I classify it as fiction in which the main characters are themselves young adults. Beyond that, anything goes. I don’t really mind the YA moniker, but I’ve never embraced it and consider my books equally suited to both adults and teens. To me, a good story is a good story.

My books may be rooted in the YA tradition, but that’s about all they have in common. I tend to be a dabbler when it comes to genre. I’ve penned a sci-fi trilogy with dystopian themes, a gothic romance, a literary ghost story, and a straight-up drama set firmly in the real world (though one of the protagonists ends up losing his own grip on reality). For my upcoming series–currently in the works–I took just about every genre I could think of and tossed them in the narrative blender.

As a result, I can be hard to classify. But I’m cool with it. I write what pleases me–it’s the only way I know how to make it work. And where the voice inside my head leads me, I follow. I hope you come too.

Drowning From Obsession by Thomas Wightman