I've always been a writer.
It's implanted into my very DNA, my breath, my thought. I cannot imagine my life without words. They have been a part of me for so long I would not know what to do without them.
People have asked me what inspires me to write, why I write, what I write.

I once began to write because I had no hobby. I liked stories. Stories flowed through me before I could even spell. I read books like I breathed. I spent summers laying on the grass reading book after book, taken new worlds, meeting new people...transported beyond my own small world, my own writing often mimicking my favorites.
And then I became a teenager and words were what kept me sane.
Words filled my journal.
Questions, pain, thoughts, wanderings, joy, triumph, prayer, pleading, love, hate....
Blogging became my refuge. It became a home for my thoughts similar to  my journal, brokenness meeting the keyboard of my laptop, flowing from my heart. And in between all of that I penned novels, silly, not-worth publishing novels, serious-I-want-to-publish-YA-fiction, and just stories
because I could.
Words have been there for me, are there for me.

As I have become an adult, words have take on a new meaning...slowly since High School my reason for writing is not just because I can, because I cannot imagine not being a writer, but because I want to write to meet people's hearts and thoughts and fears and their own wanderings. I want to touch a place in them -- I long to touch a place in them. I want to reach them, to give them a hug like only words and stories and honesty can.
I want them to know what other's writings have shown me: "honey, you are never alone."
I remember finishing the first draft of my novel The Broken Prince. It was sorely in need of major edits. I had the ending all wrong. Some of the characters were too broken. My main character Milosh needed to find healing and I remember to the point of tears because I could barely heal him, "so how the heck am I going to find healing for myself?!"
I remember editing The Broken Prince. I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone. "I just want to reach people," I remember telling her. "I want my story to entertain but I also want them to know they are not alone."
I don't want my writing to preach.
That's not why I write.
My books, my blog, my life...I have never wanted to preach. There's too much of that and not enough of reaching.
But stories, they can touch us. I want to do that too.
I remember as a very little girl crying at the end of The Chronicles of Narnia. I remember being inspired by indie authors Kara Swanson and K.A Emmons, by the honesty of Lacey Sturm, by the echo of hope in Terri Black's novels, in the wisdom of once-atheists like C.S Lewis, in eye-opening stories like The Giver. I remember connecting with characters like Jo March and thinking, "oh, I'm not the only one?!"
Words and stories touch places in us.
No matter our age.
If we let them.
Words hold real power. Never let people tell you otherwise. They are never just words. They can breath of rebellion and hope and triumph if we use them right.
That is why I write.
Because I have learned that words are dangerous.
They have the power to change.


Some of my faves I've written similar...
life is my mission
how i'm continuing to live beautifully broken
you are jesus to me