Every once in a while, a reader sends me a DM or an email asking me questions about my writing, etc. I LOVE opening up my email and seeing these emails from readers. It's the highlight of my day/week/month/year.

So I thought I'd start a Q&A session every month where readers submit their questions and I'll answer once a month.

This month's QUESTION is one I'm asked quite often...

How did I become a writer?

I wish I could say it was an easy process, but that would bigger fiction than my books.

I always knew I wanted to be a writer. As a small child, I would sit at my desk with my mom's electric typewriter and peck out short stories, poems, and screenplays. I found one a few months back as I was going through my mom's stuff after her passing. It was a short story about scary China dolls. And... it was actually really good. I got goosebumps. Maybe one day I'll publish it for giggles. Then there was the poem about The Mist that won a county-wide school contest in elementary school and my poem was published in a cute little book along with all the other winners.

That's all I ever wanted to do. Write.

But according to my parents, that wasn't good enough. That wasn't a good choice. That was a horrible career with no hope of success or financial stability. So...

I became an accountant instead! And hated every second. But my folks were probably right about the odds of writing becoming a financially prosperous career.

So I did the "safe" career thing. The stable choice. Boring but it paid the bills most of the time.

Then came marriage and kids. It took all of our dual-income to afford to provide for our family in such an expensive place as Northern Virginia (NOVA), just outside of Washington, DC. Eventually, we made the brave call to ditch DC for the simple life (or simpler life, I should say) in North Carolina where we could survive quite well on one income. After years of wanting to be a stay-at-home-mom, I got my wish. And... WOW! So much more work than my paying job ever was but THIS was worth it.

It wasn't until my youngest went to kindergarten I looked around the house and asked myself... "Now what?"

I'm no Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. Keeping house was not in wheelhouse. I needed something more. But what?

One day I literally slapped my forehead when hit with the revelation that I could now do what I had always wanted to do...WRITE!

I even had an idea for a paranormal romance story that had cooked in my brain since I was a preteen. But I lacked something important...CONFIDENCE.

Before typing one word for my debut novel, Rekindled Prophecy, I dipped my pinky toe into the literary waters by becoming a freelance content creator than progressed to ghostwriter for cozy mysteries and romance novels. Only after having the bad luck of a ghost writer client not paying me after I wrote his great American urban life story, did I finally say "F this." From then on, I was going to write my own stories under my own name.

About a zillion revised drafts later, working with other authors on Scribophile to refine the story, contributing short stories to anthologies, I queried Rekindled Prophecy and actually was signed by a small, independent publisher. A year later, the book was published. The second book in the series would've been published the following year but COVID shut down the world and ultimately shut down the publisher's operations for good. Once the publisher returned the rights to the story, I independently republished Rekindled Prophecy, as well as two more books (Revelations and Redemption) in the series in short order.

Several books later, I'm now looking to publish my first non-romance paranormal book, Psychic in Suburbia. I may not be racking in the big bucks like my idols, Sarah J Maas or Cassandra Clare, but I can't complain. I'm just thrilled to be writing and to be able to state, "I am an author."

So if you dream of something whether it be writing or designing or... anything, but can't pursue your dreams just yet... DON'T WORRY. BE PATIENT. YOUR TIME WILL COME IF YOU BELIEVE AND YOU PUT IN THE WORK.

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Please submit your questions by replying to this email and I'll address new questions next month.

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And if you haven't read my debut novel, Rekindled Prophecy, yet... it's not too late. Check it out at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XW7YG26