Merit Badge #8: Your Author Bio

[Madame]

I'm sure you've noticed, if you've looked at any submission guidelines, publications often want an author-bio to include, if they do publish you.

Often they'll specify a rough length, and most often it seems they want it in 3rd person POV. For the purpose of this task, let's say 3 - 10 sentences.

Your assignment is to write a brief author bio. Hopefully, you'll be able to use it in the future, when you send things out for publication.

You might want to write several versions of your bio, especially if you write multiple genres.

Please post your bio here, if you feel comfortable doing so!

[Pip]

I've had to do this for work before, but never in any other context. Here goes:

"Born to loving, but eccentric parents in Chatham, Kent, Pip has been "scribbling in an angsty way" for as long as she can remember. She got into writing seriously after proof-reading a friend's work, as a respite from the routine of working as a Civil Servant in the domestic suburbs of the South East. She now lives quietly in a small house in a small village in the silds of Essex and views her 9-5 job as a necessary inconvenience to be squeezed in between scribbling and looking after other people's children."

[LlewellynMcEllis]

Llewellyn McEllis has been exploring new worlds through words as long as she could hold a pencil and make those coherent little combinations called sentences. Her work has been published in Strange Horizions, Eerie PA, The Warren and several other small publications. She occasionally publishes under the name of her evil twin, Jennifer Hudock, and together they live in the middle of the serene woods of Pennsylvania with their rock-star husband, their perfect daughter, Nerford the nymph-cat, Dallas the Conflicted One, and Loki the Wonder Dog.


I tend to use Jennifer Hudock more often, and that bio looks a bit like this:

Jennifer Hudock recently received a BA from Bloomsburg University in Creative writing. Her work has been published in Strange Horizons, The Warren, Midnite Dreaming, Indigo, the Sidewalk's End and will be featured in the summer issue of Eerie PA. She currently lives in middle-of-nowhere, PA with her husband & daughter as well as their cat Nerford, a dog named Dallas, and Loki the Trickster.

[My Muse]

I made a shot a this. Not sure if I am happy with it or not but here it is:

My Muse is a hopeless romantic and passionate daydreamer who couldn’t imagine a world without books or love. Two years ago she discovered the joy of the sharing her tales on the internet but hopes that her foray into writing fiction has just begun. By trade a software developer, she currently lives in Arkansas with her husband and spoiled Cairn Terrier.

[steve34]

Steve34 currently resides just outside of Washington, DC, where he hopes to be the first President of the United States to get the position via write-in votes from the public, thus not having to spend $10 million for a job that only pays $1.6 million over the four years in office. Tell your friends.

[Alpha3760]

This may be cheating, but this is my bio on the Cerridwen Press site:

Jacqueline Roth is by passion and profession a teacher of writing, reading and literature to middle school students. A writer since childhood, she has had essays appear in niche publications and spent time as a freelance writer doing book reviews and author interviews. Fantasy is a weakness she embraces and she confesses to a fascination with Were-creatures, Arthurian legend, Greek/Roman/Celtic mythos, and Gothic literature. Roth currently resides in Atlanta, GA, where she finds the human component of her family seriously outnumbered by canine and avian members.

The bio on my home page adds the following:

However, she has been promised that if she can find a Were or a dragon, she is allowed to bring it home and keep it.

[LlewellynMcEllis]

Originally Posted by Alpha3760

This may be cheating, but this is my bio on the Cerridwen Press site:

The bio on my home page adds the following:

Having an actual author bio is not cheating!

[Alpha3760]

Good. But if it makes anyone feel better I just added a ton to he actual "About the Author" section on my webpage. One of the ladies on the loop for my editor said I should have added more about my personal life, so I did.

[Madame]

This is a toughie for me, as I'm actually a bit of a private person. (Stop laughing! I really am!). One of the reasons I've chosen to use a pen name. (The other reason is that I unfortunately share my birth name with a porn star)

Obviously, I'm hoping to pad this soon with a publication credit or two, but here's my base framework.

Madame started writing when she could barely hold a crayon and never stopped, though fortunately, her spelling and grammar have improved exponentially. A native of Texas, her passions include writing, books, social justice, impractical shoes, tiaras, and the search for the perfect margarita.

If there's ever something relevant to tack on, I'd like to do that. For example, I could add something about the fact that I once did work for a wedding planner (in college) for Wedding Hells.

[Lady Grey]

Never had to think about doing this before, strange feeling!!

OK then, here goes:

Lady Grey was born in the depths of Wales far too many years ago and never really grew up. Hence her love of all things childish and idiotic that pester her imagination begging for release. She has occassions when her two brain cells collide and something deep and meaningful is the result. However, most of the time, she is happy in her own little world.

She has an insatiable love for salt annd vinegar crisps, and her long suffering husband, (whom she still adores even 19 years after meeting him) can usually bribe her with the aforementioned goodies. When asked if she has any children her usual reply is "Yes one! My husband!!" If able to have a pet her preference would be for any large dog.

[tonyv911]

Tony lives in a small city, or large town, in rural central Ontario, where he shares a two bedroom apartment with his partner and their pet Playstation 2. In his time apart from his keyboard, he can be found wandering aimlessly, observing the local eccentrics near the bus station, or searching for jobs that will feed his writing habit. His chosen genre, fantasy, gives rise to a slightly peculiar personality, which often gets him into situations he would rather not be in. His other interests include consumerism, baking, and anything infinitely tedious in nature.

[Alpha3760]

*snickers* Funny, the new guy is funny.

[RowenaMcKinnon]

I took a stab at this one... I don't like it... I hate writing non-fiction... lol. Here it is.

Jennifer Lewis has always had a very active imagination. As a young girl, she enjoyed making up stories full of romance, fantasy and drama, acting them out with her favourite toys. Throughout her young life, she would dabble in writing and submit works for school projects. It wasn't until she discovered the world of fanfiction that her writing really began to take off. Working under the penname of Rowena McKinnon, she started writing stories about everyone's favourite boy wizard. Inspiration from the works of authors such as J.K. Rowling and Jane Austen pushed her on to create her own fiction. Taking classes on Creative Writing and Children's Literature helped expand her craft and she hopes one day to become a published author.

I'll have a stab at it....


Jenonymous wrote her first story sometime before she turned seven, having been seriously disappointed with <i>The New Adventures of Dick and Jane</i>. Plagued early in the morning and late at night with various inspirations, her bedside table has been crowded with pens and spiral notebooks since the age of nine. She once loaded her academic plate during her last year in college with a quarter that included nothing but writing classes, and became known as "that nut with the typewriter in her passenger seat," but it was her favorite term during her entire college career (which, incidentally, yielded a degree in education, not writing). Her husband of nineteen years and their three gorgeous children both bless and curse the advent of computers, which have made her addiction both easier to indulge in (for her--no typewriter to lug around and very little paper required) and harder to bear (for them--she is always to be found hunched over her keyboard, not vacuuming the living room or making supper). The -onymous family resides in southern Ohio with unnumbered guppies in one tank and a Sabine Map Turtle named Spud in another.

[LlewellynMcEllis]

I like that, Jenonymous. The eccentricity of it screams writer!

[Britannia]

I can't do this

I've been asked to write a bio - but gosh it's hard.

Britannia Carter was born in Chelmsford Essex but moved to rural Kent, which is widely regarded as The Garden of England, seven years ago and has been rather letting the side down ever since by having the widest selection of weeds in the county. Britannia lives with her partner Ivan, who she has been engaged to for 11 years and she has thus far refused to name the day because such decisions cannot be rushed.

As a civil servant, the highlight of her career came on her very first day when she was asked to sign the Official Secrets Act; twenty years later she has yet to be told a secret worthy of such a formal declaration, and has all but given up any hopes of being trusted with the nation’s secrets. On reflection she’s decided this is probably for the best because if she had ever been presented with one of those files marked in red with ‘Top Secret’ it would probably have gone the way of many a hat, scarf or umbrella and have been left on the train.

The train has now become and important part of Britannia’s life, offering a sanctuary for half an hour at the beginning and end of each working day when she is free to scribble down her ideas for the next story that she will write. The sacrifice of the odd clothing accessory being a small price to pay for quality time with her muse; although why a mythical being would need quite so many umbrellas is beyond her, but no doubt Britannia will one day write a story explaining it.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.