I am the youngest of four children, raised in the old-fashioned Irish-American way. I suspect my mother encouraged me to write from an early age to keep me out of her hair, although she may have regretted the decision when my teachers began to call about the controversial stories I was writing. Thus I began my career of butting heads with the good sisters at my Catholic elementary school, and ended it by leaving high school for college with no diploma. I wear my high-school dropout badge rebelliously and proudly.
In college, I became fascinated with the Middle Ages, which was described as a “starry night” by one of my professors. So began a trek through languages and legends that informs my narrative non-fiction and historical fiction, as well as my blogs.
I love feedback and enjoy discussing ideas. I have an accountability blog for the writing challenge A Round of Words in Eighty Days entitled Leavekeeping; I write a blog on literary history, intellectual history, and the history of words entitled Lapidary Prose. I’m on Twitter and Facebook; my email is lapidaryprose@gmail.com.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell 
Hi Elizabeth,
I found you! How fun. I’m so glad to hear a bit more about you and, as a good writer, you leave me wanting to know more. What are your degrees in? However did you get into college without a HS diploma (I LOVE that you say you “wear the HS dropout badge proudly”). So many questions, so little time. Loved your Cinderella blog, too, btw. May we all learn to embrace our inner Cinderella.
Hi Janet! Yes, you found me! As for my degrees, I did a double major, English and French, for the B.A.; Comparative Literature for the M.A., a Certificate in Medieval Studies (an amalgam of M.A. and Ph.D. requirements) and Comparative Literature with minors in English and French for the Ph.D. (for which I am writing the dissertation), as well as an M.L.S. in Library Science.
As for getting into college, I finished my junior year with 4 years of English through advanced placement, and 4 years of French by taking French 3 one summer with my teacher and then French 4 my junior year. My Catholic high school required one more semester of Religion (which was Marriage), nothing else. (My first marriage ended in divorce, so maybe I should have taken it!) I talked to my college Registrar, who said I had all the state requirements for a high school diploma, so there was no bar to admitting me. The other applicants in my position all got their high school diplomas at the end of their freshman year in college, but my principal refused to give me the diploma.
It did make it difficult when I had to explain why I was never graduated from high school to the Library of Congress when I applied for a position there, but I am very proud to be a high school dropout.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Cinderella blog–I agree, we should all take our Cinderellas to the mall for some stylish clothes!
What a path you’ve led! From high school dropout to multi-advance degree-holding author?? Fun to learn more about you. 🙂
Thank you, August. It was a rather indirect path–no going straight from point A to point B for this renegade!
Thanks for dropping by! 🙂
Glad your mother encouraged you to write!
Thank you, Kitt! I appreciate your visit. I’m pleased to have found you and your work.
Thanks!