So, Amy K. Who are you?

Well, really my name is Amy Keyishian and I'm a freelance journalist in New York City. Specifically, Brooklyn, which is across the East River from Manhattan (where the Empire State Building is). "Freelance" means I write for a lot of different magazines, and my office is an iBook on a desk 3 feet from my bed. I've written for Seventeen.com, plus a lot of magazines for grownup-types.

I grew up in a town called Morristown, New Jersey, and most of Focus On This! takes place in a fictionalized version of that place. I was not happy there, but now, when I go back, I think it looks so pretty, how bad could it have been? I still spend time trying to figure out why I didn't fit in. Part of it is -- and I swear this is true -- almost everyone feels like they don't fit in at one time or another. Part of it is, I'm kind of hyper, and it's easy to get a rise out of me, so people teased me. And part of it is, kids in high school can just be evil sometimes, because everyone's feeling self-conscious and insecure.

Whatever. Who cares. I'm over it (no, REALLY). Anyway, I have 3 sisters, 2 older and 1 younger. 2 parents, still married, no step parents (can you believe it?). At various times, I've had a dog, some cats, hamsters, and even a little parrot in college. At some point, I'm going to write about life with my sisters, and how those relationships work. There's some deeper stuff going on -- but I'll save it for the book.

Anyway, once I graduated from high school, I went to college in Manhattan, at a place called Barnard College. It was awesome. Barnard is not where you go for the traditional college experience: football games, pep rallies, sororities, yadda yadda. It's more where you hang out with other women, talk politics until 3am, wear long-johns as pants, and learn amazing stuff while living in the greatest city in the world. Fun? You have to be outgoing, and be willing to go find the parties. My personal talent. I really became myself there.

After that -- oh, it was a long strange trip. I did standup, improv comedy, dinner theater, then I worked in publishing, got into magazines. I do a lot. Including writing these books, which is really the best part.

I have a good time now. Life finally got interesting, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Let me know how you like what I do, and I'll try to keep doing stuff that makes people happy. Okay? Great.