Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember locking myself into my bedroom with a pencil and some kind of notebook. I'd spend hours writing, not realizing how day turned to night until my mom called me for dinner.
I wrote everything you could imagine. Short stories. Poems. Sample lesson plans so that I could play school with my friends when they came over (though they never wanted to). I never understood why -- I ever used carbon copy paper to make duplicate worksheets for homework! (lol)
I wrote lyrics, and yes, I used my trusty Casio keyboard to also compose music to go along with it. My very first song was Rock the Rhythm. But it never left my bedroom, so not sure if it would have earned a Grammy or not.
I also began writing a soap opera; go ahead and judge me. I refused to be ashamed for indulging (still) in watching the campy romance and deluded storylines. I will continue to watch them until I die (or Days does).
I even enjoyed (gasp - get the therapist!) writing school essays and 10-page research papers -- even the one I had to write in full Spanish when I studied abroad in Barcelona.
Think I like writing?
Yeah, me too. All my life, it's followed me. In my job as a technical proposal writer and newsletter editor. In any of my volunteering; in my blogging; in my fixing friends' resumes; in communicating injustices (or persuasions) to bosses, principals and other figures of authority; in my texts (I'm sorry, friends, for being one of "those"); and in so much more I cannot even possibly say.
I wrote my first book 5 years ago, and then a follow up earlier this year. I didn't think much of it; I just wanted to share my stories in hopes that maybe one day a future generation of mine might find it fascinating to read about an ancestor (I find that fascinating myself). And I left it right there.
But something else awoke in me last year. A yearning that drove me to write a full contemporary romance trilogy that highlights empowered women and strong (not toxic) men. Another quartet of books is currently swimming in my mind, and I can't wait to get started.
Ever since I began writing these, I felt whole and complete. Like THIS was my purpose (beyond raising two kickass kids and loving the people around me). I feel like I have messages to share through raw emotions and realistic characters, though of course, we still need some fictional fantasy weaved in.
For me, it's always been about more than the story. It's the takeaway: Did it touch someone? Could they relate? Can they feeling the healing I felt as I wrote it and apply it to themselves on their own journeys?
I'm not just an author. I'm here to empower the world. Thank you for taking the journey with me.
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