Get to Know me!

Let me just drop some fun little facts about me!

• I live in Iowa and am proud to be a midwesterner

• I have a hobby farm that we lovingly refer to as "The Schmitt Ranch"

• My passion for ATVing rivals my love for books and being an author. I grew up on a sports quad, '86 Yamaha Warrior 350; anyone? I upgraded to an '08 Yamaha Raptor 700R and a '23 Husqvarna 150TE. My husband & I take ATVing vacations all over the USA.

Me pictured with my 2 riding machines this past summer 2024 while on a club ride

• Video gaming has been a staple in my life since childhood. Nintendo 64 is my favorite system of all time (Golden Eye, being my favorite game on there). Present day, I play mainly between PS5 and Nintendo Switch (the N64 is still hooked up and ready to go on a moment's notice). I have more hours in Skyrim from PS3, PS4 and now PS5 combined than probably any other game out there that I've played... (and I'll do it again when the PS6 comes out lol). From Skyrim, I love Red Dead Redemption & Sims 4... it's actually been a bit since I played on the PS5, all my focus has been on the Switch. I will buy every pokemon game as they come out and aside from Arceus all the rest I have beat the main storyline within 12-24 hours (it's a personal mission of mine). I did just buy Palworld for the PS5 and well...it's definitely has my attention for the time being lol. Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons take up a lot of my attention. I really enjoy those cozy farming simulator games lol. For multiple player games, always the Mario Parties and Mario Kart games and then I LOVE the Overcooked games with 4 players!

• I garden! I have a raised vegetable/fruit garden in my backyard near my chicken coop! And then we have apple trees as well. I tried my hand at raspberry/blueberry bushes but they died on me.... sooooo my goal is to attempt them again! (Maybe this year... we'll see) Aside from my vegetable/fruit garden, I also planted over 600 flower bulbs this past fall... soooo if the moles and other woodland creatures don't eat them all, I am hoping maybe a future blog post will be filled with tulips, daffodils, etc.

  
  

  

  The raised garden, shortly after being planted in 2024

  
  

• With the gardening, I also have chickens! I'm sure there will be upcoming posts about those lovely fluffbutts. I've had chickens for... oh boy we're almost going on 10 years at this point!

• House plants... I have a bunch, not as bad as I used to be though... I used to have over 60 in my house... now I'm more in the 20-30 range. Pothos/philodendrons are my heartthrobs. My oldest plant I own is a shefflera that I have had since 2014. I have a soft spot for china dolls. However, after my big majestic one died, I have yet to be able to keep one alive again 😭

• I throw knives for funsies and sometimes axe's as well. I also got into playing sand Volleyball this past fall in 2024 and I liked it enough I plan to continue playing this summer!

• When going on vacation, I will look for a few things: A Zoo, a bookstore, and any unique historical things to do.

• I initially went to school for Art Education, which has come in handy with creating my own book covers, character art, logo design, etc. I ended up graduating with a BA in Business Marketing and a MBA. I use all these on the daily as an author

Alright, now that I info dumped a bunch of random non-book related facts about myself...maybe we have some things in common? I think you'll have a bit of a sneak peek into what future blog posts may be about when it's not about my books lol, but who knows maybe I'll surprise you!