The First Blog Post

Hello my friends. Welcome to my website. I hope you find it helpful and informative. Though it is small for now, I expect it will gradually grow, since I plan on continuing to write for many years to come.

I plan to post a new blog every four to six weeks. There will be news of upcoming books, sales announcements, and bits and pieces of how I operate as a writer. For those of you who sign up for my newsletter, you will get the announcements at least two weeks before they are posted here, so I encourage you to do so.

As for my first ever blog post, I would like to share a bit about my history with writing.

The first creative thing I ever wrote willingly was a poem I wrote in eleventh grade. Our assignment was to do something creative to showcase what we knew about a particular author. I chose to write a poem mimicking The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe. Don’t get too excited, though. I only chose that form because it would take the least amount of effort. I didn’t do a single creative thing (other than cooking) again for two decades afterward.

The point I am making is that it was never my dream or intention to become a writer. I never considered myself particularly creative. Even now, I do not think that I am good at coming up with new ideas. What I am good at is putting multiple ideas together to come up with something that looks new or is distinctly improved.

The question, then, is: why am I a writer?

The answer lies in a series of events that began in my early thirties. Gradually, over several years, I encountered many new and inexplicable symptoms which eroded my ability to work. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong, but I became more and more incapacitated. By the time I finally got a diagnosis around the time I turned forty, I was completely incapable of holding a job, not even one that could be done at home. I couldn’t even take care of my family or myself without help.

Over the course of four years, I gradually wrote my first book in fits and starts as I had energy. When I started it, I was obsessed with fairytale retellings. As I read book after book, I realized that many of them have similar elements. Because of this, it seemed to me that it wouldn’t be too hard to mash two of them together to create an entirely new yet still familiar tale. Since I couldn’t find such a thing already in existence, I decided to write it myself.

Thus, the first book I wrote was a mash up between two fairytales, Cinderella and Snow White. Just for fun, I made it seem that the dwarves from Snow White might be from our time. By the time it was finally done, my reading obsession had moved from fairytale retellings to Pride and Prejudice variations, so I decided to write one of those as well.

This second book came out onto paper much faster than the first did, since it was done deliberately rather than gradually out of boredom. Additionally, I was already familiar with the process. When it was complete, I decided I might as well share what I had done with anyone who might like to read it. So, I put both of them up on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Honestly, my friends, I did not expect much. I knew that there are many, many books published every day, and I didn’t feel as though my books would find many readers. I hoped they would bring in a little extra spending money and nothing more. Mostly, what I wanted was to share my ideas with someone, anyone.

I was absolutely shocked when Magical quickly took off. I was even more shocked when people began electing to follow me as an author.

Over the next months, I devoted as much of my energy as possible to writing more, and in the process, my mood lifted and I regained a sense of purpose I thought was permanently lost due to my chronic illness. For that, I have you, my readers, to thank.

There were bumps and adventures along the road over the following year as I gradually came to think of myself as an author rather than a sick person who wrote out of boredom. It was never my intention to be an author, but I cannot be happier about this unexpected purpose. I truly love writing. I love the entire process from idea formation to writing to editing. Every step has its little challenges and joys.

I plan to continue writing simply because that is one of the very few things I can still do that truly brings me happiness. I hope you, my friends and readers, continue to join me on this journey.