How'd We Get Here?
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Hey all,
I was recently invited to write an article about my "author journey" for the Colorado Authors League. I'm sharing it here for my blog readers. So if you're curious about how I ended up writing books, here's the answer (at least the broad strokes).
Technically, the first book I ever published was a pop-up book that I made as a visual aid for a research project in the ninth grade. I meticulously wrote out my thoughts in rainbow markers and embossed glitter, constructed elaborate movable parts to enchant my audience, and bound the whole thing in the panels of a repurposed shoebox stitched together with twine. Obviously that book didn’t become a bestseller (though I did receive an A from my very impressed English teacher).
I’m not sure why, but it never occurred to me that “writer” was an actual career when I was younger. It never crossed my mind that there were real people writing the books I gobbled up by the dozens or that, one day, I might be one of those people. Authors were like gods, mysterious beings who created whole worlds for us mere mortals to inhabit. I wrote stories and essays for school, of course, but my daydreams, like most of my thought, stayed locked away in my head.
As an English major in college, I read hundreds of books. Classic, contemporary, avant-garde. I learned to dissect and discuss them. What I didn’t learn was how to write them. I didn’t take a single creative writing class in the five years I spent earning my two degrees. Books were something I read, not something I wrote. I was a black hole of literature, constantly expanding the landscape of my imagination without every releasing anything.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties and happily married with a baby on the way that it occurred to me to write down the daydreams in which I’d spent so much of my life... that what was entertaining to me could be entertainment for others. One afternoon, while I was reading Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, I was struck by the most world-altering thought: “I could do this.” That’s all it took. Suddenly all the daydreams in which I’d romped for my entire life weren’t just dreams. They were stories. I opened my laptop and started typing.
My debut novel, A Drop of Magic, published in 2019. In four short years that passed in the blink of an eye, I’ve published eight urban fantasy novels and three short stories. Since publishing my first book, I’ve achieved the coveted “#1 bestseller” status on Amazon, won some awards, and grown a lot in my craft and confidence. For all that, my goal remains the same as it was in that light bulb moment: I want to write fun stories that people will enjoy.
I write worlds people can get lost in, worlds you might mistake for your own but for that little something extra. I write characters who feel and fail, but always come back fighting. I bring the extraordinary home and make you believe it could be true. At least, I hope I do.
You be the judge: Check out my newest book, Personal Demons, published Sep. 29, 2023.
I was recently invited to write an article about my "author journey" for the Colorado Authors League. I'm sharing it here for my blog readers. So if you're curious about how I ended up writing books, here's the answer (at least the broad strokes).
Technically, the first book I ever published was a pop-up book that I made as a visual aid for a research project in the ninth grade. I meticulously wrote out my thoughts in rainbow markers and embossed glitter, constructed elaborate movable parts to enchant my audience, and bound the whole thing in the panels of a repurposed shoebox stitched together with twine. Obviously that book didn’t become a bestseller (though I did receive an A from my very impressed English teacher).
I’m not sure why, but it never occurred to me that “writer” was an actual career when I was younger. It never crossed my mind that there were real people writing the books I gobbled up by the dozens or that, one day, I might be one of those people. Authors were like gods, mysterious beings who created whole worlds for us mere mortals to inhabit. I wrote stories and essays for school, of course, but my daydreams, like most of my thought, stayed locked away in my head.
As an English major in college, I read hundreds of books. Classic, contemporary, avant-garde. I learned to dissect and discuss them. What I didn’t learn was how to write them. I didn’t take a single creative writing class in the five years I spent earning my two degrees. Books were something I read, not something I wrote. I was a black hole of literature, constantly expanding the landscape of my imagination without every releasing anything.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties and happily married with a baby on the way that it occurred to me to write down the daydreams in which I’d spent so much of my life... that what was entertaining to me could be entertainment for others. One afternoon, while I was reading Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, I was struck by the most world-altering thought: “I could do this.” That’s all it took. Suddenly all the daydreams in which I’d romped for my entire life weren’t just dreams. They were stories. I opened my laptop and started typing.
My debut novel, A Drop of Magic, published in 2019. In four short years that passed in the blink of an eye, I’ve published eight urban fantasy novels and three short stories. Since publishing my first book, I’ve achieved the coveted “#1 bestseller” status on Amazon, won some awards, and grown a lot in my craft and confidence. For all that, my goal remains the same as it was in that light bulb moment: I want to write fun stories that people will enjoy.
I write worlds people can get lost in, worlds you might mistake for your own but for that little something extra. I write characters who feel and fail, but always come back fighting. I bring the extraordinary home and make you believe it could be true. At least, I hope I do.
You be the judge: Check out my newest book, Personal Demons, published Sep. 29, 2023.