My biggest influence as a writer has been Nicholas Sparks, proving that male authors can (and should) write phenomenally successful love stories. Dean Koontz and Harlan Coben, as well as Karin Slaughter and Lisa Unger have also become later influences on me. As a young wannabe author (before my first book was published), I wrote my stories like Judy Blume and Donald J. Sobol (the Encyclopedia Brown series). Even though my writing has dramatically matured over the past several years, I still look back at these early attempts and find it interesting and amusing that I have since moved on and developed a style of my own!  

Perfect attendance for 7 years in a row (5 years for high school)
Who's Who Among High School Students (junior and senior years of high school)
Dean's List (first year of college)