My name is Julia Smereka, and I’m from Michigan.  I love being able to point out my hometown on my hand.  When I was in kindergarten, we had a Publishing Center at my school, and I always had ideas that turned into little stories that I “published”.  Since then, I knew I wanted to be a writer.  However, chronic migraines that started in high school sort of put my life on hold, and my dream was downgraded to just a hobby.  Nowadays, I bake bread for a local farm market.  Nevertheless, I still work very hard in building my portfolio, which consists largely of fan fiction.  Also, because I’m kind of a spelling and grammar Nazi, I’m also a beta-reader.  Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you are ever in need of a beta-reader.  A side note: this is the first time I’ve ever shared any of my writing with anyone, aside from one close friend.  Please be kind!
Along with stories, I have also written quite a bit of poetry—four notebooks worth of it.  Although most of it doesn’t rhyme, three of my poems were published through Poetry.com, and one of them won Editor’s Choice.
Like most writers, I also read quite a bit.  I own nearly five hundred books (I know—I’ve counted!).  I love a good classic—Ernest Hemingway, Louisa May Alcott, and Charles Dickens are some of my favorites—and, of course, I simply melt over series books like "Harry Potter" and "The Hunger Games".  In particular, books like "Little House On the Prairie" and "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" are masterpieces that will always be close to my heart.
In closing, I leave this quote by Ernest Hemingway: “There is nothing to writing; all you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”