Before writing, Courtney was an award-winning merchandise buyer with a Fortune 500 off-price retailer for seven years. She received her Bachelors of Science from Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University) in Fashion Merchandising & Management and was a National Retail Federation Next Generation Scholar while there. 

Her time in fashion led her to internships with QVC, Inc. and Cashman & Associates PR, challenged her to produce fashion shows for companies like Made Studios, and took her across the country of China, all the way to Paris, France, and a hell of a lot places in between. 

While in retail, Courtney needed a creative outlet. She started a contemporary dance production company called the Stolen Fire Collective in 2017. Stolen Fire produced her piece “Wouldn’t you, if you could?” for the 2017 Fringe Festival in Philadelphia, WHICH became the source material for her debut novel, Sentience, and inspired her career change.

Stolen Fire went on to produce two additional productions in 2019, Burlesqueflix and The Golden Age, but is now on an indefinite hiatus as Courtney focuses her energy on writing.