Penname: Minisinoo [Contact] Real name:

Member Since: 01/03/08
Membership status: Member
Bio:
Minisinoo has been scribbling fiction since she was eleven years old and got bored with the usual "write a sentence that uses this vocabulary word" exercise in 6th grade English class. Her sentences turned into paragraphs, and the paragraphs turned into little stories ... and her poor teacher let her get away with it. She even -- horror of horrors -- encouraged her.

A partblood American Indian, Min comes by storytelling honestly. She's a storyteller from a long line of them, and listened to her grandfather, mother, and aunts tell stories from the time she was old enough to sit still. These stories ranged from tales about Coyote and where our people came from, to a famous cycle her mother invented about the family cat: "How Nubbin ate all the Hamburgers" and "How Nubbin tore down the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve" were among Min's early favorites. Her (Danish) father read her Greek myths from Childcraft. Her (Illiniwek) mother told her stories. Not all the stories that Indians tell are about Coyote or Raven. Most are just stories about life and dogs and frybread, and the occasional obnoxious siamese cat. It's how our children learn what's important in life.

In native tradition, telling stories is sacred business: holy. Sure, storytellers tell stories to entertain, but Minisinoo likes to tell stories that might actually "mean something," too (and how's that for arrogant?). What she's doing writing fanfiction ... well, even she hasn't figured that out yet. It sure don't pay the rent, ain't it?

She's done hospice and bereavement counseling, mediation, and now sometimes doubles as a college history professor. In fandom, she writes both X-men and Harry Potter fanfic, and lives with her son, her books, two blue-point siamese cats, a big black cat, two guinea pigs, and a black squirrel she has to chase out of her garden periodically. When she's not writing, she's probably outside digging in the dirt, keeping an eye on her grade schooler, reading, or making frybread and Indian chili. If asked what mutant power she'd most like to have, her unequivocal answer would be "telekinesis" so she could get dishes off her top shelves without climbing on the kitchen counters. She's still in the market for a real-life Scott Summers or Cedric Diggory