Maria was born and raised in Bakersfield California. She lived there most of her life while moving briefly to other areas such as Reno Nevada, Amarillo Texas and Long Beach California. Her college career started right after high school when she attended Bakersfield College as a full-time student. Her major was journalism. While her life took a few unexpected twists and turns, she had to put her dreams of getting a degree in Journalism on hold. She spent the following years raising her children and working in the medical field as a Phlebotomist. As time went on, and her children got older, she realized that she was very close to achieving her first academic goal of attaining a degree in Journalism. With the support of her friends and family she decided to go back to school and get the college education she always wanted.

She is currently enrolled in her last semester at a junior college and has applied to attend Fresno State University in the upcoming fall semester. Her long-term educational goals would be to receive her Bachelor’s Degree from Fresno State in Journalism, emphasis on film and media arts, and possibly going further and getting a Masters Degree as well. She hopes to one day right the next great American novel, or maybe just get a job as a copy editor. Either one, writing a novel, or proofreading other people’s writing seems like heaven to her. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, roller skating, reading, watching films and listening to music. She has a particular affinity for pop culture and the 1980’s. especially horror films and goth music of that time period.