We are constantly evolving, always moving and creating. Since January 2011, when I began this writing journey, I have grown and evolved beyond my wildest expectations. Yes, it's true; I wrote as a teenager to escape the heartache and sorrow my heart felt. I wrote poetry to cope with the boys' rejection and understand my parents. I spent so many nights dreaming of a life that seemed impossible to reach, impossible to create, only possible when my fingertips tapped away at our computer. I have always written on a computer of some sort. 

From about nineteen until I was thirty, I only wrote sporadic poetry here and there. During that time, I became a mother, not just that but a mother of a child with severe food allergies. I held several jobs, from dispatching plumbers to Real Estate to executive assistant. We lived paycheck to paycheck and plugged along. At the same time, I battled depression and wandered about to find my place. I didn't have a place. 

I discovered reading. I didn't discover it again; I just stumbled upon it and found it. I have always struggled with reading. I am a slow reader. I hated reading, which truthfully meant I should have read more, but I didn't. It was when I discovered authors like Susane Colasanti, Lauren Oliver, Richelle Mead, Julie Kagawa, and so many more Young Adult Authors I realized that I loved to read. 

I'm a little ahead of myself; however, I had a dream shortly before I fell in love with reading. I had this dream several times over several days. I told my sister about it. I've always had crazy vivid dreams. Dreams; that I watched like they were movies, and dreams that I was in. This dream stuck with me. As I described it to my sister, she said, "You have to write this. It would be a really good book." I shook her off and disagreed. What did I know about writing a book? Nothing, that's what. But she persisted, and I thought, "Why not. Let's write it down and see what happens." 

What happened was I fell in love with my characters. Not just the dreamy lead boys of the story, but the strong, brave heroines, too. I nurtured and read and re-read that story over and over. I tweaked little words here and there, wrote ten-page chapters, wrote ahead, and went back and rewrote other scenes. I was excited and happy. I didn't know it then, but I had found my path. The path that I was on as a young woman, the path that I took one step off of when a teacher told me my stories weren't believable. Another step from the course came when someone told me I wouldn't make a living as a writer; a further step was when I dropped out of college. With each step I took away, my creativity and joy became a little smaller and duller. 

In the middle of writing that story, The Ocean, the story I began when I was sixteen came back to me. So I decided to double fist it and write them both. I spent hours on my laptop while the sun's shadows cast short to long to short across my walls from my windows. My children played at my feet as I feverishly pinged away, letters becoming words, words becoming sentences, sentences becoming paragraphs, and linear trails of thought spewing from my fingertips. I would stay up late into the night because I had to know what would happen next. I had to see it. And finally, when I finished my novels within weeks of each other, I cried because I did it. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I finished it. My stories were complete, but my ideas had only surfaced. I had so many more stories to tell. I didn't even know where to begin.

Then I had this idea about this girl who tricks a boy into liking her. Then when he finds out, he leaves her, and she ends up alone. Then I began to think about the layers of the story and added a bad boy/hot boy to the mix who complicates her life. Then I decided, let's give her a sister who is going through her own shame. Becoming a Butterfly was born. Before the story was finished, I thought about what was next for these two sisters. That was when I decided there would be a sequel. Toward the end of Butterfly Kisses, I realized I couldn't end it there. There were still so many more loose ends with my characters. Book three was a way to give Chase's perspective and knock him down a little from the pedestal he held in my mind. The final book will tie up all the loose ends. But really, that is all I can say. I will take special care of these characters; I know that much.

I'm not sure when one decides what they want to do with their life when they grow up. I love learning new things and finding new avenues to be creative, whether in photography, video editing, writing, or whatever else will come my way. All I know is: This is it.   Now that I know my path, I will always find a way to stay on it.