Hartlee Watson
Weston Hawk
Hartlee Watson was born in a small town east of Dallas, Texas. After mastering the local Mini Golf course, and taking naps under her mom’s desk at the radio station, her family eventually moved to the former Dairy Capitol of Texas - Sulphur Springs. It was there, at the age of 7, that she finally discovered her true passion. Reading. From illustrated classics and Nancy Drew, to romance novels and Harry Potter, Hartlee lived a thousand lives from the comfort of her blue, canopied bed. Her dreams of a fairytale-sized library in her future home growing along with her collection of books. With the encouragement of her parents and an exceptional G/T teacher, Hartlee continued to push herself in her studies throughout middle school and high school. Though she was guilty of taking the occasional book to gym class, Hartlee managed to round out her education with fine arts - like band, theatre and French - and form valuable friendships along the way as well. After graduating in 2005, she continued her education in Columbia, Missouri for a semester before deciding to marry her highschool sweetheart and follow him to an Army base in Virginia. When his enlistment ended, the family - which included a son now, moved back to Sulphur Springs, where Hartlee eventually returned to school, earning an associates degree in kinesiology. Despite her original plan to pursue a career in physical therapy, Hartlee realized that the only classes she truly enjoyed were her literature classes. In fact, she had filled every available elective slot with English credits. After taking a small hiatus from academic studies in 2010 and giving birth to her daughter, she returned yet again to school with enlighted purpose - earning a Bachelor's Degree in English from Texas A&M Commerce by the spring of 2013. Soon after Hartlee began teaching secondary English, and her family expanded yet again with the addition of a fluffy bear-sized dog named Apollo. Hartlee was now in a position to help young people find their favorite stories and to show them the ‘proper’ way to enjoy English classics rather than simply SparkNote’ing their way through. Her love of reading was infectious, and her high school students left her class with not only the state required knowledge, but a true appreciation for literature of all kinds. However, as time went on, she found that she needed to tell a tale of her own. A collaboration proposal, a spark of an idea, and a year later she made the difficult decision to leave teaching in order to do just that. Now a ‘former’ High- School English Teacher, Hartlee has traded in her cardigans and chalkboards for lounge-wear and laptops in the pursuit of full-time authorship alongside a dear friend from her childhood. When not lost in creating her own world of epic fantasy or spending time with her family, she can be found continuing to work tirelessly toward her goal of recreating the Beast’s library in her own home.
Weston Hawk was born in October, 1986 in the small dairy town of Sulphur Springs, Texas. He grew up the oldest child in a tight-knit family. School was a place he had to go to, but never truly attended. His teachers tried but failed to hold his attention, as adventures in faraway places pulled him from the classroom daily. It was only after his 6th grade English Teacher discovered a deep connection to stories of all shapes in his young heart. She fanned that small spark of learning, and helped him find a place for his imagination in the classroom. After high school, Weston explored the U.S. with the aid of Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps, before returning to Dallas to go to Seminary. But, before the fall semester came to a close, he was back in Sulphur Springs. Jobs came and went as Weston walked (sometimes drunkenly stumbled) through young adulthood. He played drums in a few local bands and crashed on more than one friend’s couch. After his 21st birthday, he decided to grow up and get a real job. Weston enrolled in the police academy and spent the next 7 years working as a Deputy Sheriff in North East Texas. While serving the people in his community was a fulfilling career, Weston missed all the time with his friends and family sacrificed in order to do the job. So, he earned his Commercial Driver’s License and hit the open road. It was then, he rediscovered his love for a good story through audiobooks. His mother had tried for years to get her son to read her favorite fantasy series, and now that he had the time, Weston decided to give it a shot. In weeks, he had devoured Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series. His mother pointed him to Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss. He dove back into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and J.K Rowling's Wizarding World. His next step was an easy one, once his childhood friend Hartlee pointed it out. Now he gets to explore worlds that he helped to build.
#WriteorDie
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Life-long friends, Hawk and Hartlee have a foundation built on the memories of marching band, church trips, and foiled attempts to fly off roofs. While their life paths took them in vastly different directions after high school, they remained in contact, and eventually, both landed back in the land of dairy festivals, three-story-tall cow sculptures, and glass bathrooms.
Several smaller collaborations in writing over the years finally culminated in 2019 with a random query about co-writing an epic fantasy series. Ideas began to flow, along with caffeine and slightly above average bourbon, worlds full of mythical intrigue started to burst into life amidst the exchanging of favored books and fancy cheeses, and, in the end, a truly ‘magical partnership was born. Now, almost two years later, with the loving support of their families and the investment of a plethora of nights and weekends, Hawk&Hartlee is officially official.
Welcome to the wonderfully irreverent and intelligently fantastical -
where the stories are sparkling with enchantment
and the rhetoric is brimming with shameless impertinence.