Writing From the Edges: My Story Behind House of Teeth

 I’ve always believed that the stories we tell say something about the people we are.

So, here’s a little of my story—the one I’ve carried behind every page of House of Teeth.

🐛  Born to Stand a Little Outside the Lines

I was born and raised in Northern California by my great-grandmother—a woman who taught me why I had to be resilient, and not in a good way. Also what it feels like to live a little differently than everyone around you.

Growing up, I was the quiet one. The “too much” one.
The one who never really fit in.

In high school, I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, insomnia, and ADHD. (Since then, I’ve also been diagnosed with High Functioning Autism)
Labels, sure—but they explained the battles I’d already been fighting inside my own head for years.
I always felt like I was standing on the edge of belonging, no matter where I went or who I was with.

💬 Where the Characters First Found Me

Everything changed in 2012, when I met my best friend (and the other half to Hiraeth), Kezzi.
We started roleplaying together, building messy, broken characters who somehow felt more real than anything else in our world.

That’s where Remi was born—alongside Levi, the very first characters in what we now call our OC family.
Writing their pain, their chaos, their fragile love… it became a way for both of us to process the things we couldn’t always say out loud.

Years later, after revamping a storyline to post on Tumblr, the rest of the House of Teeth cast started to come alive—twenty-six and counting, each one carrying a piece of us, a scar we recognized, or a hope we couldn’t let go of.

🕯️ Writing in the Dark—And Finding Light Anyway

In 2023, my husband and I lost our apartment.

And if that wasn’t hard enough, our car broke down the very first day after we were evicted.
We ended up living in that broken-down car with our four dogs and three cats—parked outside a Taco Bell—trying to figure out what to do next.

After almost two weeks of living like that, a friend offered us a spot in his garage.
It was supposed to be temporary—just a couple of months to get back on our feet.
It turned into nine.

And in that tiny, unfinished garage—while grieving the sudden loss of one of our dogs to bloat—I started to see people differently.
We met all kinds of strangers, friends-of-friends, and people just trying to survive in their own way.
I learned that people aren’t just “good” or “bad.”
We’re all carrying something heavy.
We’re all just trying to find something worth holding onto.

Through all of that, Kezzi and I never stopped building the House of Teeth universe.
Through the grief, the fear, the heartbreak—we kept writing.

Since then, we’ve lost two more dogs suddenly.
And we’ve been betrayed by more than I can count, but especially by two people we once called our best friends—people who even tried to kill us.

And that’s when the first House of Teeth book, No Kingdom for a Fang, was born.

Not from a place of fantasy, but from grief.
From betrayal.
From survival.
From knowing that sometimes, the only thing that keeps you breathing is the one person who still chooses you—over fear, over failure, over everything.

That’s the heart of Rexar and Kriia’s story.
Unbreakable loyalty.
The kind that says “I’ll burn first, but I won’t leave you behind.”

And that’s what I hope House of Teeth becomes for you—
A story that makes you feel like you’re not alone.
Like you’re worth fighting for.
Like your scars still mean you’re here.

Because they do.

And you are.

📓🔏 Why I Keep Writing

Because someone out there needs to hear it:

You are not alone.
You are not your diagnosis.
You are not your trauma.
You are not the place you started.

You’re here. You’re breathing.
And you belong—even if you haven’t found where yet.

House of Teeth isn’t just my story.
It’s ours—for every reader who’s ever felt like they had to burn just to be seen.
For every survivor still choosing to hope, even when it hurts.

Welcome to the House.

If you’ve ever felt like the world tried to break you first—this is your place.

Join the Found Family today for exclusive character lore, early book previews, and a community that knows survival is its own kind of magic.

[Join the House Now]
Let ’em see your fangs. You don’t have to do this alone.