So what’s with “Lockwood?”  Well, it’s a family name, my middle name, and the only one that hasn’t changed over the years.  Though my parents named me Juliet, they call me Julie to this day.  When I chose my first (now debunked) e-mail address in 1994, it was lockwood5@juno.com.  When I started college, I decided to reclaim my real first name Juliet.  When I got married, I chose to take my husband’s last name, but kept Lockwood.  It’s my solid and steadfast identity, the anchor of my name that will never change.

I began writing long before I could spell.  By pre-school age, I was making up stories and telling them to myself or anyone else who would listen.  Word craft came as naturally to me as watching the Smurfs on Saturday mornings or begging my mom to get me a McNugget Happy Meal.  Hey, I grew up in the 80’s!

I studied poetry and prose as much as possible through public school and successfully auditioned for the 1996 Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts.  That year, the program chose just 20 creative writers out of roughly 200 who auditioned.  I continued my literary focus in college, graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Transylvania University in Lexington,Kentucky.  From 2004 to 2006, I participated in more than 100 hours of community poetry and prose writing classes from The Muse of Virginia Beach, Virginia led by Master of Fine Arts in creative writing John Michael Kandelwahl.

Professionally, I’ve written for clients across the country since 2001 with samples to include:

• branded advertising copy for brochures, direct mail, fliers, newsletters, e-mail marketing, etc
• search engine optimized web content in the form of informational articles, product sales copy, blog posts and more
• informational, educational and/or persuasive articles for press releases, training materials, trade publications and consumer magazines
• professional communications including executive speeches, company-wide e-mails, recommendation letters, corporate policy and procedures manuals as well as everything from personal notes to standardized form letter replies and thank-you notes.

On my own time, I continue to compose poetry, fiction and non-fiction pieces which I sometimes publish online or tuck away for polishing up later, but in the near future, I will begin submitting pieces for juried competition or publishing.  Right now, I’m working on a children’s book, a short novel for young adults and some adult fiction.  As I begin to submit these pieces for publishing, I will come back to this page and tell you how things are going.