The Raw Truth about why and how I started writing
My Lifelong Love for Storytelling and the Written Word
Look, I'm just going to come right out and say it - I've been obsessed with stories and writing for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I constantly had my nose buried in books, devouring fantasy worlds and adventures like candy. I'd stay up way past bedtime, reading by flashlight under the covers because I just couldn't put down whatever book I was reading. I was also a very depressed child, and growing up in rural Nebraska meant that mental health conversations didn’t exist. I didn’t have a way to express myself, so I turned to poetry. I knew how to write, and I knew sports, so a lot of my early poems were analogies of me likening myself to flat basketballs that were used and worn but still bounced, just not as good as they did before. I was already exhausted at eight years old and used poetry, reading, and writing to escape my reality as much as I could.
I loved getting the Scholastic book handouts in school every month and circling all the books I hoped my parents would get for me. I was obsessed with the Pony Club for the books and because I got cards and other awesome swag with each book. I also loved horror books. I was raised by a woman who was obsessed with Stephen King, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I couldn’t get enough of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, and eventually, Pet Semetery became one of my all-time favorite reads. It only got better when I went to a horror fest as an adult and got to meet the cast of the original Pet Semetery movie. I about died. All my childhood reading dreams were coming true!
My love for the written word grew stronger as I got older. I worked hard at writing fan fiction for movies that I loved (this was before fan fiction was a thing), and I started writing my own short stories. I really fell in love with the creative process of building a narrative from scratch. There's just something so magical about crafting entire universes with nothing but words on a page. I'd get so lost in my writing that I lost track of time for hours on end as I fleshed out characters and plotlines. My early stories were heavily influenced by Terry Brooks as I was obsessed with The Elfstones of Shannara and couldn’t get enough of that world. I wrote about magical lands full of elves, wizards, and dragons. I also loved reading Susan Cooper’s books about young adults and kids battling back against evil. Fantasy was my sweet spot, but horror was always there. I started reading romance at some point and haven’t looked back. I still pick up a fantasy book every now and then, but romance is where my heart lies these days. It’s no surprise that when I decided I was going to write and publish a book it was a romance novel.
These days, I'm working on my third novel and living out my dream of being an author. I’ve self-published two books in a romantic suspense trilogy and can’t wait to debut the third and final book in the series this fall. Whether I ever get traditionally published or not, I know writing and storytelling will always be two of my biggest passions. There's nothing quite like the rush of emotions and escapism that you get from diving into a good book or writing session. It's an addiction I'll never want to quit.
