I'm an almost-thirty single Catholic geek girl ... and how many more adjectives can I get into one sentence? My name is Alicia. I am a dreamer and poet; I am fire and shadow inside. I am silly and outgoing, and I'll geek out with you about just about anything I know enough about to geek out about.

Until now, I haven't had the desire to write a whole lot of fic of my own. Until now; I have a novel project that I'm working on which will be posted here once I'm done. In the meantime, I'm dusting off some of my other projects from over the years.

I'm a Catholic convert, Christian my entire life, and my conversion story is quite long and confusing. I've noticed that it comes into most of my writing. Usually I don't set out to write allegory; it's just that the more confusing something is for me, the more I need those words to try to make sense of it. God is at the heart of my life, my best friend as well as my Lord. And I adore the quiet serenity of Catholicism, and the way that now I can honestly "seek God where He is to be found."

There are an awful lot of people without whom I would not be where I am as a writer. I'd like to mention my heroes in poetry (even though there's no chance they'll ever see this): Rich Mullins, late Christian singer/songwriter, and Shelly, my cousin and friend. The Buffy and Xena writers deserve a lot of credit, not just for giving us a universe to play in, but for the amazing work they created, for showing me that it's okay to experiment and it's okay to take life and question it and pull out the glory and wisdom to be found. I wouldn't have started writing Xena fic without the encouragement of my Xena Online Community friends. I have a fantastic team of beta-readers helping with my novel (you know who you are; I don't want to list names since I'm not sure whether you want your pen or regular names used or what). And ... thank you, LadyChi, for your portrayal of Kenshin, for the glorious moments of quiet faith and understanding in your stories. Thank you, LadyKate, for pushing me to write all I can and for showing me so many things about love and duty, sacrifice and inevitability and possibility, in your stories. And LadyRowan ... you showed me a new layer to what writing itself can be, and your words feel like they're ringing from another world. I know I would never have had the courage to write Shadows without you, but I wouldn't be able to do the writing, thinking, fangirling, and healing I'm doing at this very moment without the strength of your friendship.

I hope you enjoy the stories and poems -- take your time, enjoy the show. And drop me a note and let me know who you are!