Amanda “Queen of the Wiki” Cales was born on August 2nd, 1988, and is currently a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee. She’s also pretty sure they don’t know what’s hit them yet.

Sometimes known as Aray, Mandaray or Kurichan, Amanda lives with a very large & silly German Shepherd, two cats, as well as a couple of people who insist they are genetically related to her. She does not believe them, since she is clearly made entirely of Awesome. She has been an aspiring writer since the tender age of 8, when she discovered what great fun it was to type phrases from her favorite Lion King book into the family computer. Thankfully her mother was present to turn her away from a path of plagiarism, instead suggesting that Amanda write her own original stories into the computer. Needless to say, young Amanda was impressed with this suggestion and hasn’t looked back since.

During her teen years (OK, technically I’m still in my teen years, but go with me on this, yeah?) various aspects of Amanda’s life conspired to all but annihilate her confidence her writing abilities, leaving her a very sad, unhappy person. She made several attempts to finish a book, all of which failed miserably. Even “winning” NaNoWriMo 2003 didn’t help. Convinced that she would never become a true writer and that making endless attempts to be one was just a waste of her time, Amanda eventually walked away from the keyboard, never to return.

Thankfully, podcasts happened. After watching a particularly life-changing Firefly marathon on the Sci-Fi channel, Amanda was so Firefly crazed she went scouring the internet for anything to do with her new favorite show, and found “The Signal”, a Firefly podcast. Baffled by this new form of media, Amanda investigated it further, and eventually found Mur Lafferty’s “I Should Be Writing”. Shocked that she was not the only person in the world who had trouble writing, and that YES, she WAS allowed to suck, Amanda quickly got back on the writing horse and finished a 200,000 word novel later that same year. In 2006, she participated in NaNoWriMo again for the first time in three years, and won the challenge in 21 days. After adding her ‘06 manuscript to the one she had started in ‘03, she produced her second book, which she is currently editing. It has been an experience unlike anything she’s ever done before, and is a subject she plans to podcast about one day. In the meantime, she has joined The Dead Robots’ Society in the hopes that she will be able to use her experiences to reach out to other aspiring writers and give them the same hope and guidance that Mur Lafferty once gave her.

Recently, Amanda has acquired a new job at a local grocery store and gained several new friends, and she adores all of them. Her range of life experiences has widened considerably, adding new dimensions to her writing. Presently she is considering what new direction to take in regards to her stories, (also see: procrastinating at every available turn and trying to sound smart about it) but feels confident that wherever she ends up, she’s likely to be happy and surrounded by people who are willing put up with her craziness… and maybe even knit her the occasional scarf.

When she’s not writing, Amanda is also a skilled cook, learner of Wiki code, extremely excitable Doctor Who fangirl, long time RPGer, lover of movies and technology, LOLCat enthusiast, Listener of awesome music, maker of webpages, wrangler of gibbons, Tomb Raider devotee, Wiki addict and interviewee for the NanoMonkeys podcast. She is also currently the only girl in The Dead Robots’ Society, something which amuses her greatly.

---

The Basics :

 

Email: amanda@amandacales.com

Website: http://www.amandacales.com

IM program of choice: MSN messenger amanda_cales@hotmail.com

Skype: amandacales

Personal Blog: http://pookerdoos.livejournal.com/

Favorite flavor of tea: Tazo “Zen” green tea

Works completed: Two novels, both of which are currently in the rough draft stage, one Doctor Who short story, which was written for a Big Finish anthology contest (I didn’t win), and one short story which is as yet unnamed and has only been shown to two people on the entire planet. Eventually it may see the light of day elsewhere, but don’t hold your breath folks. I’m also working on a few other short stories but as yet nothing has been finished.

Preferred genre(s): Fantasy and sci-fi, but I’m open to writing pretty much anything from chick-lit to mystery. Secretly I plan one day to do it all. =D