I was born in Br�hl (near Cologne) on May 25th, 1976. We moved to Westfalia when I was 4 and I grew up there, near Paderborn. Studied Librarianship in Hanover and I'm currently working as a librarian in Hamburg.
My mother used to tell me that I was fascinated by letters and words very early on. In fact, I learned to read and write at age 4, whilst sitting next to my brother when he was doing his homework. So whenever I was grouchy as a kid my mum used to find something with words on or in it - package inserts, telephone books, anything - and I'd be sitting in some corner studying it with utmost earnessness!
I can't remember being read stories by my parents which is probably due to my desire to read myself. A book would always be appreciated as a gift for my birthday or Christmas and until now, I've got about 500 or 600 books (haven't counted them recently ;-) ).
As long as I can recall I have been thinking up my own stories though, besides reading those written by others. It was my way of getting myself to sleep as I was pretty afraid of the dark as a kid. So one day I realized that with all these stories I was reading plus those I was thinking up myself, loads of ideas got lost due to "overload" in my brain, which led me to the most logical decision - to write my own stories down!
My first "written" stories date from shortly before my 12th birthday. Since then - and again I haven't counted them in a long time so it's a very rough guess - I have written, started or at least penned down concepts for about 300 to 400 stories. Most of them, especially those from teen to adult years, are either "pure" fantasy stories or at least have got fantasy elements. There is a love story element in just about every piece; apart from that I have also tried horror, historical and crime fiction. Length differs from short short stories (less than a page) to huge epics (a three-part series containing five books per part).
I've never really wanted to become a "professional" writer as I am quite happy with writing only when I want to and whichever story I want rather than having to finish a certain story for a certain set date. I guess it's due to some typical Gemini habits - mercuriality and impatience ;-) However, I have once sent a piece of one of my "bigger" works in to a publisher and got a rather positive reply, which was nice. I wouldn't really mind being "discovered" but for now I'll settle with publishing my stuff here. I do hope you enjoy reading my stories and check back often!
