Bates received her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis, and her Masters from the University of Memphis College of Education. In the early days of the internet, she worked in Writer's Ink and Macintosh BBS on GEnie. She has written for Woman's World, Byline Magazine, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Writers on the River and Softdisk Magazine among others. She has written under the name Allie Bates and under other pseudonyms; and has ghostwritten books, screenplays, speeches and blogs. She has won and/or placed in numerous writing competitions, such as the Tupelo Gumtree Festival Short Fiction Competition, NOLA’s Novel Beginnings, Deep South Writer’s Competition. Bates has edited for New Age Dimensions Publishing, Dark Romance Novel Group, Zumaya Press, as well as for several corporate clients. Her medieval novel Earthchild ISBN 1-59611-016-3 was well received. She worked in development on the movie Florida Road, for director Brad Glass.