Where My Professional Writing Journey Began
Welcome readers, writers, and those who accidentally stumbled upon this page!
As this is my introductory blog post and my ribbon cutting as an author to you, the reader if you will, I apologize for being a bit wordy upfront. At this point, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, so I’d like to start off with the first question people ask when they find out I’m a writer: “What inspires you to write?” Or “Why do you write?”
That seems as good a place to start as any.
What inspired me to write The Soul Mender Trilogy (I was still in college at the time—the same age as the main character, Remy Dale. The Soul Mender Trilogy is currently not available.), and what I hope comes across in a non-didactic way, are my own frustrations with the world and how xenophobic and intolerant many of us have become, both to people who look different from us, and even those who look the same but money, family, and life have dealt them a different hand. I think it's important for people to learn to love and forgive themselves and also to reconnect with empathy, which I believe is disappearing from our society.
I grew up in a small, predominantly white town in Southern Utah, but color, religion, politics, etc., never caused me to hate or dislike anybody. I was raised to see everyone simply as people on different journeys in different places, but all with the same core human DNA. When I entered the real world and suddenly heard people using the "N word" and talking about killing Muslims for fun, I felt horrified. I couldn't figure out where that kind of hate came from. So naturally as a writer, I decided to make up an origin, in the deepest sense of origin, as well as a possible solution.
This story is about tolerance, empathy, and the world being a solid shade of gray vs. black and white. I believe this trilogy will be something people can relate to, are searching for, and will help them take a new look at good and evil, right and wrong, and humanity as its most basic.
I put my characters through a lot of hell over the course of three books because the struggle of empathy and love for self and others is often a steep mountain to climb. I hope this doesn’t make it sound like I’m a pessimist. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I like to think I’m a realistic optimist who understands that a glorious happy ending and real change can only come about through deep hardship and pain.
Plus, as a reader, I’m drawn in much more to struggle and hardship than I am to an easy slide through life. Who isn’t?
And like most authors, I write what I like to read.
