Biography

All people wear masks. Some people do it on purpose.

Firstly, let us explore the mask of Nightphoenix, whose blog this is. Nightphoenix is primarily a fantasy writer, and secondly a fantasy artist. Her first novel is nearing completion, and she has a whole list of projects to tackle in the future. She devours books at a ridiculous rate, and is thus a familiar sight at many Brevard County libraries. She has a deep love for well-told stories, and will rip novels, TV shows, and movies apart in search of them. Her desk is surrounded by maps, pencils, and the M&Ms she consumes copious amounts of, especially when in the writing zone. She can draw, paint, and sculpt with excellent technical proficiency, but her drive to write is stronger than her desire to make fine art. She favors strong, vulnerable protagonists; charismatic, dangerous antagonists that haunt her in the night; and plots that leave her satisfied, if not happy. She enjoys a good tragedy and wishes that more authors nowadays would write them. Her likes include chocolate; good books; music by E. S. Posthumus, Mirabilis, Secret Garden, Harry Gregson-Williams, and Ramin Djawadi (preferably mixed in playlists created especially for her stories); and evoking strong emotions in people. She dislikes cardboard characters and overused gimicks.

The mask of Ashley Dennison is perhaps the one that most people see. She is a wife and the mother of a rambunctious three year old boy, who rarely lets her have a moment of peace. She toasts sandwiches, watches Sesame Street, plays ball and watches dragons ride around together in paper Steak ‘n Shake cars. She can quote large sections of just about any Pixar movie, and is told that she cooks good meals…those nights that she remembers to take the meat out of the freezer to thaw. Occasionally she’ll even do a load of laundry, but usually only when her son runs out of clean shirts and her husband runs out of socks. Her likes include chocolate; sleep; music by Hanson, Anberlin, Falling Up, Tinted Windows and Red; and decent children’s programming. She hates hanging up clothes and changing dirty diapers.

The spiritual mask calls herself Amaranth. She is a proud Pagan in a somewhat long-distance relationship with Yahweh. She’s had a long, strange faith journey, leading her into and out of just about every minor popular religion. She’s largely content with where she is, though she suffers from occasional bouts of spiritual loneliness. Hiding behind a silver ankh within a largely Christian existence, her path is one of theory and dreams than actual practice. From her travels, she has developed a deep appreciation of the complexity of Western occultism, a working knowledge of the Qaballa and of magical correspondence, and an understanding of the pitfalls of eclectic religion. She makes her own incense from scratch, and is still perfecting her materials and technique. Though she doesn’t use them in her practice, she likes creating unique and eccentric wands, which she hopes to sell one day. She can do a simple Tarot reading and will sometimes consult the cards, but usually there’s nothing she has a burning desire to know that ordinary means would not reveal. Her likes include chocolate; incense; music by Nightwish, Within Temptation, Flowing Tears, Evanescence, and the newer works of A.F.I.; and open-mindedness in people. She dislikes ignorance and dogma in any religion, but especially in Christianity (she feels their founder would severely disapprove). She keeps her own witch’s blog elsewhere in cyberspace, so you may not see her very often here.

Sometime in the future, a fourth mask will join the crowd. She will be known to the world as A. Dennison, and she’ll be a published (and hopefully respected) author.