Short Version:

I’m Emma. I write. I teach. I live with my family in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Long Version:

I’m an only child, which means I spent a lot of time in books and forests. I generally wandered about unsupervised, which is a thing kids did back then. I also spent a lot of time in U-Hauls because we moved a lot—not because I have a parent in the army, but because I have a parent who was restless. I liked moving.

Things I’m good at: parallel parking, packing, talking in the accents of places I’ve lived, and listening. Things I’m bad at: make up, sleeping, cooking two things at once, and balance—both literally and figuratively. Things that embarrass my children: I get into long conversations with strangers. I dance in public. I love to lip synch with gusto—especially in the produce section of a supermarket. (This is why TikTok is very, very dangerous for me.)

Keeping It Real Version:

These bios are usually a list of someone’s accomplishments—their highlight reel. But it’s not their highlight real. Here are some of my truths: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 10 years old. In college, there was a creative writing class, but you had to submit sample pages to be accepted, and I was too scared. After college, I applied for a grant to work on a book I’d begun. I got rejected. I started and stopped a lot of books over a lot of years. When I finally finished a book and revised it, I queried agents. I got rejected. I wrote another book. I queried more agents. I got rejected. It wasn’t until my third book that I finally got an agent and a book deal.