My name’s Kirsten Erika Paulson, but I like being called Erika. I was born in Queens, New York, which is where I’ve lived for my entire life. The first half of my life was spent in Bayside, but at about the age of 11 or 12 I moved with my mother to Flushing, where I live now.

I graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School, a Catholic high school in Jamaica, Queens. I’ve been in Catholic school for literally my entire life up, ever since pre-K. Since I started identifying myself as a Wiccan in about fifth grade, I’m glad to be done with Catholic school. Not that it wasn’t a good experience, mind you! I’m just ready to find more ways to explore my spirituality that my previous schools didn’t provide or allow for.

I’m not decided on a major yet, but I know I want a major in Business. Although I’m interested in business, I know my true passion is writing stories, so I’ve recently started thinking about double majoring in something related to writing.

I’ve been writing stories since I was about five, although, naturally, those first stories weren’t very good. I’m constantly thinking of plots, of characters, of places and things that I could write into a story; it’s as though my brain only “shuts off” when I’m asleep, and even then, I sometimes get ideas from my dreams.

I draw inspiration for stories and characters from a lot of different places. Music, of course, is one of them. Some of my favorite artists are Vienna Teng, Fall Out Boy, Voltaire, Pink Martini, Two Steps From Hell, and Within Temptation. Below are a few of my favorite songs by them:

Vienna Teng – Watershed
Fall Out Boy – You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave
Voltaire – When You’re Evil
Pink Martini – New Amsterdam
Two Steps From Hell – Archangel
Within Temptation – Murder

Those are the sort of songs I tend to listen to when I’m mentally developing characters and stories. The thing I like about those songs is that they tell stories to me, whether they use words or not (not, in the case of Archangel, since Two Steps is an orchestra). They’re more than just songs about drinking and partying (which I like too! I’m not knocking them either), they’re songs that actually have characters of some kind in them or narrating them, which suits my purpose.

I also get a lot of inspiration from other stories, both written and visual. A significant number of my ideas are taken from different ancient mythologies, such as the Greek and Norse, as well as from the mythologies of major world religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. I’m also a huge fan of all things strange and otherworldly, like ghosts and haunted houses.

Some of my favorite books tend to reflect this:

So do some of my favorite shows (one of which is a podcast):

Well, that’s enough about me! I hope to have a great semester with you all!