Megan McCooey

grew up in New England (Danvers, MA)... close to the beach, eating seafood, practically from the day I was born. I typically can't go to a restaurant without ordering some variation of it and when you get me back to my stomping grounds, I am pretty much out of control. My husband actually thinks it's an addiction. LOL! I currently live in Northeast Ohio, close to dairy farm land (certainly no beaches around here...), with my husband and our babies: our tortious shell & calico Cassi, our two wonderful rescues, Bailey & Madison and our newest edition, our papillion, Emma. 

 

I hold a BS and an MS in criminal justice. I love studying criminal behavior... it's so fascinating, So there will probably always be at least a hint of this in my writing.  I worked as an adult probation officer while living on the southwest Texas/Mexico border, where my husband was a border patrol agent.  It was interesting and exhilarating work, but offers very little in the way of recordable success.  I have strived to get back into my field, but the job market is, well... we all know what it looks like. So now, I work in retail management and strive to become a full time writer. 

 

Reading is one of the things that got me to where I am today. I know that may sound crazy, but if you ask the small group of friends who have known me since birth, they will attest to this as well. When I was young I latched onto reading as an outlet and somehow it became just that. So while my walls were closing in, the screaming was growing louder, and the pain became more visible, I turned to my books and they SAVED MY LIFE! I think it was the idea that I could connect to the characters and pretend to be someone else...somewhere else, anywhere but in my own life. Over time this avid love for reading became like a mentor who never stopped showing me that I could have more, that I deserved more...My love for reading was something I both flaunted as well as hid over the years. It truly is my dirty little vice, and unless you're an avid reader, it's not always easy to understand -a love for...books? YES! Today I would scream it from my rooftop... I LOVE TO READ!!

 

Ahhh, so now that we have deduced that I am crazy about books, let me tell you I have an eclectic taste when it comes to reading and I can go from a YA novel to Dean Koontz, to A Dog's purpose, to paranormal, all in a day's time... I tend to get wrapped up in characters in the books I enjoy, and I hate to see a good book end, which is why I looove series.

 

As for my writing, I write from the heart. I experienced a lot of life lessons in my teen years, and this is when my love for reading manifested into my love for writing, which is probably why I love to write YA. I can relate (on a very real—very raw level) to a lot of the things my characters go through, which I believe is not only good for my writing, but therapeutic for me as well. As my characters work through their problems; stumble around and try to make sense of all the pain, as they learn the lessons they must learn—I learn too. I learn to let go of some of the things I've held onto for years—some of my own pain, and even some of the "why me" questions I struggle with.

 

I plan to dabble in other things, but I thoroughly enjoy this genre both in terms of reading and writing. My first novel, Harvest Moon, is the first book in the Harvest Series and I hope the first of many more books to come. The second book, Winter Solstice, as well as the series prequel, Angela, will be out just in time for NEWS!!