About

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My love for writing truly began when I was in the sixth grade. Whenever I felt strong emotions, I was writing them down in notebook or scribbling them on scrap sheets of paper. That time in my life was also when our family owned our first computer, and subsequently, I found out how fast I could type. I would get booted from the computer so that others use it, which is when I would switch to writing poems in lined spiral notebooks.

It was my sixth grade ELA teacher that sparked the idea of becoming a published author. She planted the idea and helped me see that it was a real possibility. She had these paper clips that we would hook together whenever we found connections, themes, or similes in the book we were reading. My hand was almost always in the air to share the latest connection I found in our reading assignments.

As you can imagine, our classes’ chain was the longest at the end of the year, and we got a special pizza party. On the last day of classes she made bookmarks for all of us and even gave us little nicknames. When I got mine, it said “My Little Author.” I nearly cried out of excitement; I knew what I wanted to with my life. I knew I was born to write.

Fast forward through the rest of middle school and high school. I almost always had a writing project tucked away somewhere that I was saving for later. I had written many things, but never knew what to do with them once I was done with them.

Then, the inevitable happed.

I grew up, went to college and even got two degrees in English, the second one a creative writing degree focusing on fiction. I had the fancy pieces of paper that told others I knew what I was doing, I was a Master for goodness sake. Even with all of this, and all the knowledge I accumulated, even with the proof that I knew what I was doing, I fell ill with Imposter Syndrome.

I told myself that my stories weren’t good enough and that no one would want to read them. They sat in a box, collecting dust. My debut novel, The Displaced, remained an abstract thought and the thesis for my Masters program. I thought about it and would work on it on and off for over five years, but it still felt like a pipe dream that it would ever see the light of day.

One day I woke up and decided that the best way to make sure that my story made it out there was to publish the book myself. I haven’t totally given up on the thought of traditional publishing, but for now my best bet was to just do the thing myself.