Writer/Fencer/Student of the Mundane and Fantastic

WRITER
I write YA (young adult) fantasy adventure, plus a few other things when it gets too noisy in my head. I’ve had 300+ articles published from daily newspaper to state-wide and regional magazines to national intranet media.

I’m currently in the revision stage for my first YA book, first in an intended series. The pitch currently goes something like this:

“After the boogie-man pulls Aunia’s closed-mouth father into Faery and sets demons to destroys their village, the idealistic teenager sets out to rescue him by traveling to a land that wants him dead.

Not only does she have to avoid capture herself but she struggles against being drawn into an all-out war among pegasi flyers, wererats, religious cults, faery-kind and the nobles. It is only after she personally faces the conflict between love and duty that a glimmer of the path back to her father is revealed.”
Revised:

“Life is never been easy for Pollyanna-ish but disliked 17-year-old Aunia…especially since her last stunt caused an army of Dagel demons to attack her out-of-the-way village right after the boogieman took her father. Now she has to travel with the pegasi flyers into a land she’s only heard about from stories to find a way to free him.”

I’ve been on the Board of Directors for the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers’ Group as the 2011 Write Stuff Conference Chair booking keynote speaker Donald Maass from the Donald Maass Literary Agency, the 2011-12 President, Ex-Officio (Past President), plus other offices. I have also helped with 2014’s conference by interviewing the entire faculty for the conference blog and will again be interviewing some of the conference faculty this year as well.

FENCER
For most of my adult life, I have played with a small band of “mercs” within a historical reenactment group (the Society of Ananchronism or SCA) and somehow have had them become part of my extended dysfunctional family. Besides being a lot of fun, this international non-profit organization provides a plethora of research resources.

My latest passion in this group has become fencing “in a round.” This is NOT your typical collegiate fencing as I’m typically use a rapier and a dagger nor do I stay on a “runway.” I’ve also have been enjoying becoming more active within the fencing community and many of its participants have become quite dear to me. Who better to “kill” than your friends?

But besides practices, there are tournaments and melees aka battles. Yes battles as in not choreographed AND with anywhere from two to several hundred people on a side.

Basically this is a great for comraderie, exercise, fun, and hands-on experience for my fight scenes. (particularly since before I took up fencing my fight scenes were -ahem- kind of lame).

STUDENT OF THE MUNDANE AND FANTASTIC
Other things I easily can get lost in:

*Libraries and museums (please see could get lost for days if allowed)

*Ancient civilizations, (the architecture, the mythologies, the anthropolgy, the theology….yeah…Must see Pompeii, must, must, must). Recently saw Tulim and Chichen Itza and OMG!

*Karoake

*Storytelling of almost any kind of venue (including theater and movies).  I particularly enjoy faery tales.

*Dancing!

* Spending time with family and friends, and

*Considering what the keys to the universe really are… like… What is up with this quantum physics thing? and can thoughts really create reality? Are we really alone within all the dimensions, the ones we experience and the ones beyond our ken.

Feel free to poke around. Leave a comment or question, if you’d like.

Happy writing and storyliving,

Tammy F. Burke