Bio/Contact

I made my misguided way through college and graduate school without a single creative writing course—in much the same way I grew up in Vermont without learning to ski. There is no accounting for such lack of foresight. I am now the author of three young adult manuscripts, The So-Called Cure, The Persephone Paradox, and Lightning Dreams, but to this day remain a black-diamond-trail wannabe. I live near Rochester, New York, with my husband and two children (both of whom learned to ski and write stories while young, unlike me.)

I've been an active member of Rochester Area Children’s Writers & Illustrators (RACWI) since 2009 and have benefited from the brilliance and generosity of award-winning local authors like Linda Sue Park, Vivian Vande Velde, and Keely Hutton, just to name a few. From 2017-2022, I was on the RACWI Board of Directors and Co-Director of the Rochester Children’s Book Festival. I’ve been the festival’s primary fundraiser since 2009 and will continue to help provide hundreds of free books and dozens of free author and illustrator visits to Rochester city schoolchildren each year.

Education:

Many classes at Writers & Books, Rochester's outstanding literary center

Monthly RACWI meetings, focusing on improving craft and getting published

National and regional SCBWI conferences

Alumna of Rochester Institute of Technology three times over: AS in Photography, BS in Business, and MBA in Marketing.

Contact: vmdodds(at)rochester(dot)rr(dot)com

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