Alissa McGowan — Owner and Senior Editor

Hello and welcome! I'm Alissa, self-professed geek and written word addict. I was hooked from the day my grandma first taught me to read, and my love affair with language has blossomed into two degrees in English literature and a career in editing and writing. It also doesn't hurt that I'm a detail-oriented perfectionist. I love what I do, and I'm passionate about helping writers like you produce work of the highest possible quality. Reading has been such an influential part of my life, and being part of the process of bringing your words to other book lovers is the most fulfilling career I can imagine.

Though I love to read pretty much anything, I'm partial to young adult fiction, speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, utopian/dystopian, alternate history, etc.), fairy tales, humor, LGBTQ fiction, culinary fiction, chick lit, and historical fiction, as well as non-fiction works that deal with anthropology, narrative theory, primatology, queer theory, feminist theory, biology, self-help, and evolution. And, okay, I'll admit that romance novels are a guilty pleasure of mine as well.

My other passions include black and white 35mm film photography, writing, skydiving, hosting murder mystery dinner parties, and all things geeky. I adore animals of all sorts and have an awesome cat named Miles O'Brien Benjamin Sisko (Benny for short), pictured right. I dream of one day owning land on which I can plant vegetables, keep bees, and house a menagerie of animal companions, specifically a horse, a Chow Chow, and several cats at minimum.