byams' profile

Eons member since

Aug 30, 2007

Age, Gender

52, Female

Location

Batavia, IL

Hometown

Platteville, Wisconsin

Places I've been

Other places I've lived: Minneapolis and Duluth, MN; Madison, WI; and various suburbs of the Chicagoland Other places I've loved: anywhere in Wisconsin; Iowa; the Twin Cities and Iron Range of Minnesota; Arizona; the canyons and parks of Utah; Colorado; California; Maine; Michigan; New York City; Washington D.C.; the Florida Keys; England; Canada; Mexico; China; Portugal; Spain; Costa Rica; Singapore; Germany; France; Argentina; Scotland; Wales;

More about me

I am a lucky woman. I come from a small but close family, and have friends I dearly love. I had a good career in corporate public relations (about 25 years, including for a healthcare system, Parker Pen and Motorola), and am now on the scariest and most exciting adventure of my life - building my own business. I combined my love of short stories with my passion for gadgets to create Sniplits - publishing audio short stories for iPods, cellphones and pretty much anything else that will play an MP3 file. Sniplits.com launched toward the end of April  2008, and today has 120 professionally-produced audio shorts (from about 1 minute in length to nearly an hour) from more than 50 authors from all over the world. That's the exciting part! The scary part is that I'm pretty much risking everything I've got, and I have so very much to learn! Come visit me at www.sniplits.com, and let me know what you think!

 

Activities

Reading, writing, playing with my dogs, gardening, and learning to sculpt

Favorite Music

I love all sorts of music! Aerosmith, Pink, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 3 Doors Down, KT Tunstall, Bob Seger, Prince, Nickleback, Yo Yo Ma, India Arie, Guns & Roses, Marshall Tucker, the Coors, the Cranberries, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, Macy Gray, Santana, John Fogerty, Lily Allen, Norah Jones, the Beatles, Dixie Chicks, Dido, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley, George Thorogood, Queen, Jackson Browne, Nina Simone, Pearl Jam,

Favorite TV Shows

I love the sci-fi channel and am impatiently waiting for "Eureka" to start up again. I've watched every incantation of "Dr. Who" since I was a kid. I haven't yet forgive the channel for dropping Firefly. Otherwise I watch the business channel, "Mystery, " "Bones, " "Anthony Bourdain, " "Forensic Files" and spend a surprising amount of time with the Weather Channel on.

Favorite Movies

Stardust, all three of the Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean, the first - no - now they're the last three Star Wars, Princess Bride, The Hours, Chocolat, My Dinner with Andre, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lonesome Dove, The Fifth Element, possibly anything with Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis.

Favorite Books

I couldn't possibly pick from all of my favorite books. My most recent favorite is Peace Like a River by Leif Engler. I always have a number of short story books I bop in and out of, and right now they include: Fragile Things by Neil Gaimon; Chicago Blues, edited by Libby Fischer Hellmann, and Throw Like a Girl, by Jean Thompson. But most of my reading time is spent reading short story submissions for Sniplits.

Favorite Quotes

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however." From Illusions, by Richard Bach

Favorite People

They know who they are!

Favorite Places

Any place with a palm tree, the whisper of a ceiling fan and a tiki bar.

Favorite Animals

My two Australian Shepherds and my psycho cat.

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