Photo by Angela Rowlings

Writing has always been at the center of everything I do. When I was in my twenties, a position at a music magazine gave me the chance to write about musicians and music books. After receiving a law degree, I wrote law book supplements until, realizing I cared more about writing than about the law, I turned my focus to poetry and fiction. Still later, I wrote a personal essay column for a local newspaper.

Since 2005, I've posted personal essays on two blogs, Famosity and What, Me Worry? In 2007, I founded BreastFree.org, a website for women with breast cancer who opt not to have reconstruction after a mastectomy. In addition to writing and updating the copy for that website, I created the BreastFree Blog, where I have written about my post-surgery experiences. 

More recently, in my Symptoms Explored blog, I've turned my attention to medical mysteries. I'm not a medical professional, which sometimes helps me think outside the box. I try to ask the appropriate questions and synthesize the available information in order to figure out diagnoses and treatments.

Simply put, I try to understand the world by writing about it.