My name is Kelly McMurtrie, and I am an author-in-progress. I live in upstate New York, and I am a seventeen-year-old junior in high school. I do not want to be a full-time author once I’m out of school, I actually want to be a software engineer. But I would love to be an author on the side. My absolute biggest dream is to hold a book that I wrote in my own two hands. I have one younger sister and two loving and supportive parents, as well as two dogs who I love so much. I have been a writer since before I could remember. The earliest memory I have is reading a little picture book I made in elementary school to my grandmother’s daycare kids. Ever since I was a small child, I wanted to share my own stories with the world. And here I am, finally doing that.

Recently I went through a very dark time in my life. I was sent to the mental health hospital after having a crisis. And while I don’t want to go into too much detail, that experience taught me that you need to do the things that make you happy, and nothing should stop you. Not embarrassment, not time, not being locked up in the hospital. If it makes you happy you need to do it. So, I am doing what makes me happy. And writing, while sometimes stressful or difficult, make me so, so happy.