KáLeena Genette

Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of the Vox Chaotica Council! FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDAAAAAY FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAAY!

LET'S GET IT ON! Okay, so that has some pretty unfortunate connotations, but I was referencing EMOGAME 1.5 and the rest of the series... Which now I think about it may have actually been a reference to certain activities of questionable sanitation that I was planning to avoid. NOTE: The EMOGAME series is very very very VERY Not Safe For Work Or Family. It's a game that should be played while you are alone and in bed after 11 p.m. with the lights out. It is not scary (much) but it is very high-school punk-rock and has a lot of explicit content of all natures.

What a way to introduce someone. Awkward. Well, let's get this back on track, shall we?

KáLeena Genette. She is a writer, proficient artist in all things Microsoft Office (they are an artform all to themselves), technical illustrator, singer and photographer–though she say's she's about as much of a photographer as I am, which can be put nicely as: "I sometimes take pictures... Maybe." Her daytime job is System Support Specialist for American Airlines / US Airways (they're merging, WHAT). Which means that she gets calls like "Hey, so this passenger has a support monkey that's afraid of flying and needs a support dog." Now, most sane people got to support monkey and think: "Whaaaat? Surely that's not legal!" Turns out the whole thing is legal, and this passenger had a support monkey who has a support dog got to go on with their whole menagerie. Airlines, am I right?

Originally, I met her in 1st Grade because we randomly went to the same elementary school (Bright Beginnings Kids REP THE CRAP OUT OF THIS), though she left after 3rd Grade. [Quick divergence–this happened a lot in my life. In fact, my wife left Arizona for Florida the week after we got married in Kindergarden... Needless to say many tears were shed.] Anyways, Káleena then went to another charter school, or two, or five, graduated at 16, went to CGCC at 17 majoring in Math (!?!?!???!??!), started working, and is now at ASU (where I re-met her and actually got to know her) to get her degree in Design Studies.

This lovely lady is all sorts of awesome. She's writing a novel (and has been for a good number of years), but she entertains us with the serials and slice of life posts on her blog until the novel's manuscript is done. Her sense of humour is pretty close to mine–so if you like my stuff, you'll like her voice too–and lordy does she have a good voice. The construction, the sonic juxtapositions... the imagery–as the son of a professional wordsmith I have a good handle on when writing is good, and KáLeena's is phenomenal. But having heroes like J.K. Rowling would do that to a person, I think. Her #1 hero is her mum, however (*audience coos heartwarming awwws*), due to her being the most amazing parent, and should surely be nominated to receive the highest "Overcame Adversity" award.

Our fabulous writer does, however, have a great need to live in the amazing city of Seattle... or Vancouver (the one in British Colombia), or someplace farther North with access to the ocean, trees, lots of creatives... And other things that her current home in Chandler lacks–though she does an amazing job of surrounding herself with creatives. Some random facts: Her favourite book is The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl, about a 14-year-old girl living in the walls of her family's mansion because she's too shy to go to school; she is a secret spiderman fan (shh! don't tell!); her favourite smell is that of vanilla incense; she writes so she doesn't go crazy. KáLeena likes Pentatonix, Taylor Swift, IAMWE, her two shih-tzus (Dusty and Bambi), pit bull (Brody), and silver tabby (Dingo), and pizza. Her favourite drink is a warm TAZO chamomile tea (ideally twice a day). The song I would describe KaLeena with is: Last Bison's cover of "Midnight City" (originally by M83).

When asked to describe herself in seven words or less, she said: "Living passionately, building fiction from reality."

Really what more can you ask for in a life?

tl;dr KáLeena is a fantastic and creative person, a superb writer, and the Supreme Overlord of All Earth-Born Creatives... Also a college student.