Brandi is a 50-something island girl who either gave up adulthood—or cleverly dodged it—when she moved from Tucson, Arizona, to Marathon, Florida, at the tender age of 22.

Over the decades, she’s bagged bait, gassed boats, written grants, cleaned hulls, poured beers, dug ditches, coached swimmers, schmoozed tourists, rubbed backs, painted trap buoys, shaken Key lime martinis, lifeguarded at Pigeon Key, and reported for the Florida Keys Keynoter, covering everything from city politics to small-town scandals.

In 2000, her investigative reporting on the privatization of Marathon’s new city government earned her the Florida Press Association’s First Amendment Defense (Jon A. Roosenraad) Award.

These days, when she’s not dreaming up sultry scenes and unforgettable characters, Brandi reigns as the benevolent sadist of Island Pilates. She lives in Marathon with her very own Jackson ;)