I always have a hard time writing my own bio, and so I often wonder if other writers also have a hard time with it too. I’m already dreading the day, in the near future, when I will have to write an author’s bio for my books and my profiles on publishing platforms. I am not a very exciting person, and my bios will surely reflect that. I’m only sure of one thing: the part of my bio where it tells where I live and with whom. That’s something a lot of author bios include, usually at the end, so mine is going to have that too. Maybe at the beginning. I’m thinking I should start with it, since it’s the only thing I’m really certain of.
So, here it is: Sara Keefe lives in Texas with her husband, daughter, two cats Yuzu and Mirin, and memories of Japan.
Those are the basics. I like it when bios reveal pet names. Family members names are too personal, but pet names are more vague, and they can also tell you something about their people. For example, our pets have Japanese food names, because we love Japan and Japanese food.
My husband and I met in Japan. Neither of us are Japanese but American. I was born in Florida, he was born in Massachusetts. It is a guarantee that we never would have met if not for both Japan and Dungeons & Dragons. We met at a D&D game in Japan. I had been in the country four months. He had been there much longer, on his second or third period of residence (I can’t remember which, he’s ten years older and so has more history to keep track of). I lived in Japan a total of three years, my husband a total of ten. We returned to America because our eldest daughter was stillborn, and we wanted to be closer to our families while we grieved. We would love to live in Japan again someday. We miss it greatly.
I taught English in Japan (as did my husband, but this is not his bio). My degree is in English, with minors in Creative Writing and Psychology. I tried teaching in America and didn’t enjoy it. My first job in Japan was the best job I have ever had. My second job was not as great, but it still beat the jobs I’d had in America. My work history is not very interesting. Degrees in English don’t get you very far if you stop with a Bachelor’s. If I could go back and do it over again, I would double-major in English and History, but that probably would not have helped my career options that much.
Right now, my jobs are homeschooling and writing. I enjoy both, but I wish that writing could be my full-time job. I will not be homeschooling forever, so maybe I’ll be a full-time writer in the future. In the meantime, I carve out writing time when I am not teaching or otherwise caring for my daughter.
But this year, I decided that I can’t wait for homeschooling to be over to follow my dreams. I keep putting it off, but I’m getting impatient. I want to do it right now. Or, at least, sooner than ten years from now. I have always wanted to be a published author, so I’ve spent this year researching my options, and figuring out how I want to get it done. I like being in control, and I like my independence, and I write alternate history mysteries set in Japan in 1907, which is kind of niche. So self-publishing it is.
A year from now, I will hold my first book in my hands. I have a long way to go to get to that moment. This website is a step in that direction. This blog will be a chronicle of sorts. I hope you’ll join me.