I was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, where my primary childhood hobby was combing through treasures in a junkyard nestled in a grove of tall pine trees. I didn’t do much writing then, but I did learn how to sift through rubbish to find something of value, which is kind of what writing is like.
At age 12, my parents took my younger brother and me to all 50 United States. We were homeschooled, which allowed us to spend a week in each state as we lived and traveled in a 36-foot RV. During that time, as I collected treasures from fields and forests across the U.S., I also learned how to collect experiences and make note of particular places and peculiar people. The journal I kept during that year became my first book, My American Adventure, which was published by HarperCollins/Zondervan in 1998 along with a companion journal for kids to set and pursue their own goals.
After graduating at the top of my class (home school joke, sorry), I attended Michigan State University and graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. The day after graduation, I packed all my belongings into my burgundy Chevy Cavalier wagon and moved to North Carolina (warmer weather! mountains!) with no job and very few plans. It was a time when I sought out new adventures. I started my own graphic design company, traveled to foreign countries, hoodwinked friends and family into paying for my dating site subscription in exchange for the pleasure of reading about my failed dates.
After a year in North Carolina, I landed a marketing job at an airport and, seven years later, was offered a position with an aviation marketing agency. It was my dream job and afforded me the opportunity to work from home, travel even more, share what I had learned in my past experiences and help shape a young company. As a marketing consultant, I wrote proposals, plans, posts and many other things that didn’t start with the letter P. Writing in various voices for different clients, and in multiple styles for varying mediums, I learned to be both succinct and expository.
Writing has been part of my life since I wrote that first book in my teen years, but it wasn’t until I moved to Tennessee in 2014 that I began exploring long-form fiction and started the earliest work on what would eventually become my first novel. During that time, I caught up on classic literature, learned that your metabolism really does slow down in your thirties, started cycling, and began collecting ideas for at least three books I know I want to write in the future.
In 2019, I completed my first novel, A House Outside of Town, and am currently seeking an agent and a publishing contract.
Amy Burritt 