A BIT ABOUT ME (short version)
Content strategist by day, historical fiction writer by night, unless I'm gardening, practicing Friulan (my ancestral language), or riding alongside The Husband, on Vixen, my tricked-out motorcycle. I believe the secret to happiness includes curiosity, lifelong learning, and tales well told—but travel and tea help. I have journeyed to more than 20 countries and sipped tea in each one.
I reside in the foggy-rainy-cool Pacific Northwest, though I make regular research forays north of the 49th parallel to Vancouver (my former hometown), and east of Greenland to my true ancestral home, near Venezia. It helps to be a dual Italian-Canadian citizen, hold a U.S. green card, and have relatives all over the globe. All it really does is give me more work and research options, not to mention fodder for the tales I spin.
Speaking of which, I have a few of those up my sleeve so come back often for the latest musings on my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to get an update on my novels in progress, and other goodies.
A BIT MORE (long version)
At 15, my creative muse came alive in Mr. Fenrich's 9th-grade English class. I entered a contest and received an Honorable Mention in a national Canadian women's magazine for my romance novella. Despite my recognition, Mr. Fenrich thought I should try another career, so I headed for business school, and after graduation, spent a decade or so in the investment industry in Vancouver, Canada.
When love came knocking in the form of a tall, dark-haired, and handsome American, I headed south to Seattle and traded my stock ticker software for technical communication schoolbooks.
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In 2009, a co-worker at a high-tech company (who shall remain nameless because he still has a price on his head) challenged me to complete NaNoWriMo. I demurred for one year until he wore me out and I succumbed to the wild ride of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. The result was the beginnings of a historical fantasy trilogy, and soon after, in 2010, I started using "Tessa Floreano" (a version of my name) as my pseudonym. Translated from Italian, it means "harvests flowers anew".
In my youth, I spent time with my family in northern Italia. I've spent a portion of each of the last ten years over there, and with the help of my relatives, I've accumulated quite a bit of research. The yearning to blend my love of family stories with my passion for history, mystery, myth, and magic became too strong to ignore. So, I started a journey of weaving it all together and writing about it in two previous blogs and websites. When agents and publishers took a shine to my work, I decided it was high time to get myself a big girl website.
I've been fortunate to have had some wonderful mentors along the way. The Writers Studio in NYC, PNWA President, Pam Binder, and teacher-extraordinaire Margie Lawson were instrumental early on. In 2014, I was fortunate to be among a talented group of only six female authors who joined renowned historian and #1 New York Times bestselling author, Deborah Harkness, at a week-long writing intensive at Hedgebrook.
Locally, I'm a proud member of:
I'm also a member of the Advisory Council of the University of Washington Technical Communications Certificate Program, and I formerly served on the board of the Society for Technical Communications-Puget Sound Chapter as President, PR Chair, and Scholarship Committee Chair. I now serve as co-chair of the Programs Committee at the Casa Italiana Cultural Centre in Burien, WA.
As for professional writing and such, I'm a multiple award-winning technical writer, former Microsoft Innovation columnist for Seattle Examiner, a published poet, a community historian, and a novelist.
