My mom always said, "telling stories in your blood", and boy, was she right (as moms often are). I live to write. Indeed, my imagination won’t rest unless I purge the stories trapped within. I’ve written of dragons & floating isles, a mother’s love triumphing over Banshee blood magic, and don’t judge, a bit of Tamora Pierce fan fiction. My passion burns so bright I even passed the writing gene to my eldest daughter!

 

My road to self-publishing took years, and there’s a question from my final query that’s stuck with me: "What compelled you to write this story?"

 

I was stumped. I remember when the inspiration for what became A Stranger's Song struck (paragraph scribbled during lunch my senior year of high school) but why or how it took precedence over the other novels I'd started, I've no idea. A Stranger’s Song consumed me from spring of 2003 until June 2018 when I finished the initial full draft. Another 2 years of revision & query prep before I pitched to agents in January 2020, and that’s 17 years.

 

17 YEARS.

 

What the heck was I doing? Well, I completed 3 years of undergrad & 2 years of postgraduate while working, moved states, miraculously got a job during the Great Recession, got married, bought a home, had a baby, had another baby, switched companies, and moved into a better, bigger house. Life is busy and stays busy, especially with two small girls under the age of six.

 

Shadow Dancers went much faster. Outlining began in May 2019 and was finished in June 2023. At nearly double the pages, 4 years is a world of improvement, especially since this period covers COVID & teleworking, selling our 1st & 2nd homes to buy our 3rd, both girls starting school, continually revising and pitching A Stranger’s Song, and other unexpected major life events. Fingers crossed volume 3 is completed even quicker.

 

Even now I still can’t pinpoint what compelled me to write Symphony of Sols and doubt I ever will, and that’s okay.

 

It was simply my destiny.