JadedElegance

Alayna-Renee is a freelance author and retired performer who recently moved from Atlanta to Southern California. Originally from the Northeast, she's now lived everywhere but the American Midwest! Despite calling the South home for over a decade, she still retains the accent and the blunt charm that's NOT worthy of Scarlett O'Hara,

Often dubbed a real-life manic pixie dream girl by friends, Alayna has never lost her child-like sense of adventure, her enthusiasm for photos, vintage fashion, costuming, glitter, chocolate, martinis, travel, and refusing to wear a pair of socks. Hobbies include reading, writing, fashion, reality TV (and yes, she almost appeared on one of those shows), music, singing, acting, movies, virtual worlds that immerse her imagination, sending and receiving awesome mail-packages, Etsy, and a weird thing for Dateline mysteries.

Alayna holds a degree in Musical Theatre with a minor in Creative Writing. She began her writing journey as a popular and successful blogger back in 2001, and after years of content writing, finally made the leap to fiction.

She is an author of dark fantasy, Gothic fiction, historical drama, steamy romance, old-fashioned poetry, and paranormal elegance. Her most successful book is "Immortally Beloved", the first book in the saga of an unforgettable female vampire from the time of the French Revolution.

Alayna is always in the middle of one thing or another, whether creating characters in a virtual world, reading a great book, listening to music, or binge-watching Hulu. In her free time, she still has fun with roleplaying games and the occasional video game, and has been active in writing on Wattpad for many years.

If you'd like to talk about books, theatre, television (especially reality TV!), costuming, travel, music, or a world full of other things, we'll likely be great friends! I love learning about other cultures, places, and ways of life. Open-minded, accepting, and non-judgemental, I can usually find common ground with anyone, but tend to strike up friendships with those like me---people who have a lot to say!

Fan of Broadway musicals/standards/showtunes, classical, opera, pop, modern jazz/soul, and music from the '80s and '90s that always makes me smile. My collection of music is large and eclectic!

Favourite artists include Lana Del Rey, Coldplay Lady Gaga, Halestorm, Adele, John Legend, Sam Smith, Evanescence, Hayley Orrantia, Muse, Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Madeleine Peyroux, Natalie Dessay, Kristen Chenowith, Patti LuPone, Sara Bareilles, Alanis Morrisette, and a whole library of '80s and '90s hits!

Favourite classical artists include Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Lizst, and Beethoven. Favourite operatic works are Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, La Boheme, Carmen, and Die Zauberflote. Maria Callas and Andrea Bocelli still rock my world.

I regrettably don't read as much as I used to, but favourite books include almost everything by Phillipa Gregory and Antonia Fraser (historical fiction), Liane Moriarty, John Greene, "White Oleander" by Janet Finch, "The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the entire collection of supernatural beings created by Sarah J. Maas, anything written by Anne Rice, and the list goes on and on and on...

My Kindle is full, but I'm not sure why I read less as I get older. It's a bad habit! Always open to book requests.

I've read a lot of classic novels, and am enamoured by Victorian and Gothic literature, as well as epic Russian fiction. (yes, I made my way through War & Peace. It took me three months!) .

I once made it my life's goal to read every book on the 100 Most Frequently Banned Books list. If people have a problem with you, you're probably saying something interesting! ;)

I watch way too much television and always have, probably related to my "Not reading enough" observation earlier! I'm addicted to true crime, bad reality TV, and whatever I'm excited about tends to change with the season. I'm currently watching "House Of The Dragon" and "The Gilded Age", "Survivor" and "The Challenge", "The Serpent Queen" (a great portrayal of Catherine de Medici), and the new reboot of "Interview With A Vampire", which I think was the story Anne Rice would have liked to tell, but she was 50 years ahead of her time.

I'd love to be a crafty, artistic sort of person, but I'm not. I grew up with a mother who knitted and crocheted, but I could never get the hang of it! Nevertheless, I could easily buy a Michael's and justify it by saying "I'm going to make stuff". ;)

I collect anything and everything vintage! I created an art installation years before "junk journaling" was a thing, a mixture of photos, poems, and vintage ephemera. Jewelry, clothing, lace and other trimmings---all this stuff randomly makes me happy.

I love to swap postcards, notecards, letters, and anything creative that doesn't take a lot of "crafty" talent. I'm the rare person who loves glitter and gel pens and things we're not supposed to admit we love after we're 13. (I have a sparkly unicorn next to me.)

I'm not a tea drinker, but love hot chocolate and hot apple cider instead. I will never say no to chocolate, candy, perfumes, etc. I'm an extreme girly-girl who never outgrew fun, pretty things.

I collect journals, and have more than I could possibly fill, but I'll try! I also collect pens and stationery.

In 2020, I lost my partner of 13 years to cancer. Shortly thereafter, I ended up becoming very ill myself, and I came away with a new awareness of just how precious and fleeting life is.

Life being turned upside down so abruptly led me to becoming interested in scrapbooking. Memories are very precious and they're things that deserve to be chronicled in a special way. I'm just getting started, but I just love the idea of turning life into art.

I colour in adult colouring books and paint-by-number on my phone so that real paint doesn't accidentally fall and make a mess. I love photographs, thrift shopping, travel, and pen-pals still made me as happy as they did in the 6th grade.