Gabrielle S. Awe

My Story

“Be who you needed when you were younger.”

Books at the dinner table, books at baseball games, books by the pool. When I was little and family – and the world – were terribly confusing, I turned to books to help make the world go away. Eventually those books helped the world make sense again. Unfortunately I ended up with many strange ideas that people would be noble or terrible, powerful or powerless, and that every conversation and confrontation needed some literary level drama to them – lessons it took me decades to unlearn, much to my disappointment.

Books were always there for me, and they helped me escape to worlds that I wished were real. I pictured myself flying on a dragon on Pern; saving Merlin from betrayal in the crystal cave; flying on spaceships and settling far-flung worlds, circling stars more beautiful than ours would ever be.

Now I am older and I still love reading my stories, but when I go to sleep at night I dream of worlds that no one has yet written. I dream of characters that don’t exist; I practice conversations that never happened. There are magics and mysteries and gorgeous settings and heart-wrenching betrayals in my head and I owe it to all the authors who came before, as well as all the readers who come behind, to pay it forward by getting my words down on paper and out into the world.

When I am not reading, working at my amazing (no joke, work is my passion) day job, I write my novels and short stories; I dabble with my paints and my pens and my pencils; I make action figures out of my favorite characters, I torture my family with character bios that haven’t yet turned into more books, and I collect basically anything I can get my hands on (especially Funko Pops, I have walls of them!) I abuse commas and semicolons, I keep trying to convince my husband to get a puppy, and I record my podcast in my very busy closet with a fancy microphone that same husband got for me. He is a saint to put up with the million things I always have going on.

I have a degree in Psychology from UC Davis; I’ve worked in technology, cyber-security, ops leadership, and consulting; I love leadership coaching, public speaking, and generally trying to do all sorts of magical things with words, both spoken and written.

My podcast is called Stories in the Dark; I am the creator and the voice, and my husband Jeremy is the producer. I have a YA contemporary fantasy novel called The Seventh Book of Shadows that I’m currently submitting to agents and a drafted YA fantasy novel set in another world called The Empire of Sky, which is currently resting after a very aggressive first draft whirlwind; this is my newest love and once it finishes resting I will polish it up and start asking agents to love it too.

I hope you enjoy my work; my podcast is the best place to experience it, and you can support me by reviewing my podcast, buying me coffee, and subscribing to my mailing list for the occasional emailed word-presents. (It’s true, I call emails little presents full of information, and you can get one from me!)

xoxo

-Gabrielle