I began writing on fictionpress back in 2004 under the name Mackenzie Lee Hawthorne. During a lonely semester of college, when I had no support system, I came here and wrote and wrote and wrote. And read a lot, and met lots of great people. But in 2007, I hit a wall, and I stopped writing for a while. In that time, I started up my wedding photography business, started dating the love of my life, bought the world's cutest dog, and... still missed writing. That dating relationship ended, and I moved on to an abusive guy, then to the man who is now my husband. Unfortunately, that husband turned out to be just as bad as the last guy, so here I am again, nearly 27 years old, lonely again, on a journey of self discovery, and needing to write more than ever. Eight years after I started my journey here, I'm back and writing under a different name. I will be slowly migrating my stories over to the new FP account, M Beth.*

Because this is the “About Mackenzie Lee Hawthorne” section of it all, I guess I should give some more details about myself…. Normally I use this part for story summaries and such, but a couple people have e-mailed me asking for a bit more of a glimpse into Mackenzie.

First of all, Mackenzie Lee Hawthorne is a pen name. I sure wish I was related to the great Nathaniel Hawthorne, but alas, the most interesting thing in my genealogy are some Hawaiian and Arabic bloodlines that have some sketchy stories to go along with them. There are rumours in my family that we’re related to the Romanov family because my younger brother has the same blood clotting disorder that Alexei had.

I’m now 22 years old (which is really very young, I must say), and I enjoy quite the assortment of activities. In high school, I played water polo and swam. I also danced for about thirteen wasted years of my life, doing everything from ballet to hip hop, and back again. I say wasteful because I knew from the time I was little that I wouldn’t pursue it, so going to dance three or four times a week from the time I was three…. Well, it truthfully was a little wasteful. Fun and fantastic along the way, though. I also did gymnastics for about nine years as a kid.

I rock climb, surf, manage a rock band, play a little guitar, piano and flute. Since I was 16, I’ve had the dream of becoming a doctor, a fashion designer, a teacher, a full time music and talent manager, a model, an actress, and about four hundred other careers. I’ve been in and out of college and am finally committing myself to going back full time to get my degree in English before doing my best to get into the most exclusive Masters writing program in the U.S.—UCI’s creative writing program. Other interests of mine consist of photography, modeling, acting, music and my two babies, Cozie, the most talkative and ridiculous cat in the world and my puggle puppy, Rylee. And, of course, reading and writing are high up there on the scale of favourite things to do. Classic literature captivates my soul, pretty much. There’s no better way to put it.

My new reviewing policy (
23 June 2006: I’m way backed up on things I’m supposed to read and review. I still review everything I read, but at the moment, I’m more into Hemingway, Twain, Dumas and others to be doing a lot of fp reading. And the little time I do actually spend here is pretty much checking my story stats and posting new chapters and stories.

About Wreck of the Day updates: I know, I know…. I’ve been the world’s most amazing slacker when it comes to both Adventures and this story. I’ve really hit a block at this point in the story. Trying to decide where I’m going with it is taking lots more time and energy than I’d really like to spend. But I’m spending it because I love the characters and I love Mac. I hate that I have all these loyal readers who don’t review, but I can’t control that. Right now I just want to focus on getting it redirected, planned and finished up so I can move on to other things.

Short stories: Yes, people, I know there are a lot of them. I posted them, for goodness’ sake. I love writing short stories, mostly just one-shot pieces that are a little artsy, out of the box, and just different. That’s my thing, right there. Writing those is what makes me happy. However, I haven’t been doing a whole lot of writing lately because the muse hasn’t come, and I haven’t dragged her down to play with me, either. So there’s the deal on that.

There are a few projects I’m dedicated to working on once I finish up some of the things I’m doing right now, and I assure you that they will be much enjoyed when they come.

As always, a huge, huge thank you goes out to Mac for being the best reviewer ever. If everyone on fictionpress was like her, it would be a better, happier place.

And finally, I have this myspace account (you can look it up by my e-mail address) and I’m hoping to start working on putting story updates (not chapters) on there. Basically, hints about what’s coming up in stories, possibly polls about what should happen next, character profiles, short stories to go with the novel-length ones. We’ll see how that goes. Thanks for making it this far! Never hesitate to e-mail me. I love hearing from people about my stories…. I’ve gotten a couple reviews lately that are truly critiquing me as a writer and helping me to grow. I appreciate it and thank you all for that. If you guys have requests to turn a one-shot into a full story, let me know. Or the other way around. Thanks all for reading! Reviews appreciated. Love to all!

-Mack