I'm Devon. I have a Ph.D. I teach writing and digital media courses at a small liberal arts school in Central Illinois.

I'm originally from Alabama and have a deep connection to its landscape and people; much of my family still lives there. I often wax nostalgic about the smell of honeysuckle, the colors of hydrangeas and the nights of my life lit by fireflies. I miss the sound of ocean waves, fresh seafood, and sweet tea.

I am obsessed with music. I write a lot about what I'm listening to, what I'm nostalgic for and the significance of music throughout my life.

I wish I were crafty, in multiple senses of that word. I enjoy a DIY project but often like the idea more than the outcome. I'm terrible with scissors and most materials that require cutting or sawing or drilling. I cannot sew. I'm also a terrible liar and not incredibly perceptive to manipulation or mind games.  

I love a good, big thunderstorm (if I'm safely inside),  the smell of fresh mown grass and the way blue raspberry Icees stain my mouth. I am incredibly neurotic; I worry about everything and am very much an Aquarius. You can read more details about me in this post I wrote for #reverb11. 

I have a lot of ideas.

I see the world in big picture terms and I feel that everything is connected to something else. I am not ”neither nor” but ”both and.” I am both intellectual and silly, both deep and shallow. I am emotional and rational. I am sometimes kind but often selfish. My power comes from my sense of justice, of what I believe in and am passionate about. I am bold and almost always take the long way around. 

I began blogging in 2004 when I left home in Alabama for grad school in Illinois. Though I was unaware of it at the time, my need to connect with friends back home as well as my need to see my thoughts outside of myself and the strong storytelling background of my Southern upbringing created intersections in blogging that would change my life in numerous ways and at numerous times. 

I began blogging as a way to record the stories, the daily bits of my life that I wanted to share with friends back home. I quickly became interested in blogs on a scholarly as well as personal level. As I learned more and more about design, and Photoshop and began researching blogging as a genre, social media and publishing form, my purposes for blogging evolved. I became more aware of the power of writing publicly, of saying (writing) things aloud and knowing someone might stumble upon them and be moved. Of course, I also discovered the consequences of writing publicly. 

But at the core of this writing has been a drive to understand myself and my relationships to others. I record my thoughts here; I log them, categorize, tag, set dates to what and how I feel about any given topic. Blogging is a way for me to make sense of things. It is the way I reflect on my life, the way I work through and process and remind myself of all the stories I have yet to tell. I strongly believe in the power of story, of telling stories and reading stories.