Geneva Woodmansee

Staff Writer. Contributing Editor.

“Drilling from a ship in open water is, in the words of one oceanographer, “like trying to drill a hole in the sidewalks of New York from atop the Empire State Building using a strand of spaghetti.” – Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Geneva has always had an obsession with detail and organization – traits that play well into her current field of project and operations management. Graduating a year early from high school to pursue a degree in dance, she performed with an international folk dance troupe across Utah and parts of Illinois for a few years. Changing directions, she transitioned to a linguistics major in her subsequent college career. She credits this to her love of the Celtic languages – particularly Welsh. Following graduation, she broadened her experience as a photography editor in Indiana before moving back to Utah. Thus, she began a position in project and operations management in 2012. Since then Geneva has diversified across various industries, from travel agency, educational non-profit, to corporate furniture. Graduate school looms ever as a possibility, but she still has yet to decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

A large portion of Geneva’s imagination and sci-fi/fantasy exposure was inspired through osmosis of her parents and older siblings’ interests and activities. Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Dungeons & Dragons play deeply significant roles in her earliest memories, across their spectrum of different media. Home schooled for two and a half years, Geneva’s mother introduced her to chess at a competitive level. From kindergarten through 1st grade, her penchant for scholar’s mate, fostered a love for gaming and problem solving. At age seven, her parents sold their Washington home, bought an RV, and traveled the US for eleven months before settling in Indiana. This year-long field trip further cemented a passion for travel, exploring diverse perspectives and cultures, and meeting new people. It also developed her love of literature, as her father read The Chronicles of Narnia out loud over the course of the trip. Subsequent years stoked her passion for all things Celtic, ultimately playing a critical role in her fields of study in college. Computer gaming remains a favorite interest, with later expansion into platform-based video games.

A decade past graduation, Geneva continues to indulge her love of language, reading, and exploration – albeit through alternate routes. While her professional life does not directly involve linguistics, she enjoys analyzing accents and constructed languages in media and dabbling in new languages as travel necessitates. “Thanks, Duolingo!” Her library has expanded immensely since grade school, but sci-fi and fantasy remain the staples. As for exploration, while year-long field trips are less common, she enjoys shorter international adventures as often as she and her husband can make time. Local hiking, running, and rock-climbing adventures in the outdoor playground that is Utah fill some of this need in the gaps between travel. She’s also been an invaluable contributor, as a writer and editor for The Unconventional, and put significant time into Steam-Funk’s in house fictional properties. Outside of work in the day-to-day ongoing adventure that is life, she grows plants, sews, cuddles her two fluffy cats Peaches and Pharah, and games with her husband.