I have always been a fan of stories. As a kid, I very quickly learned to read, after I became jealous of the stories my brother was getting to experience. I too wanted to read the Magic Tree House series and partake in these new worlds and different periods of time. That’s where a lot of my love for reading started, along with the other books my dad would read to us. I have always loved a good adventure.
I have distinct memories of my dad reading to myself and my siblings when we were little. Frog and Toad are Friends and Martin the Warrior were personal favorites of mine. My dad was excited about his kids getting to read and enjoy so many of the same books he did when he was our age. I’m grateful to him and his love for reading he passed on. We still frequently discuss our latest reads and recommendations.
As an early teen, my brother really wanted to be an author, and the two of us spent a lot of time making up stories and writing fanfiction of our favorite books and games. Somewhere on the internet still exists is my old FanFiction.net account, with Warrior Cat stories galore. But you can pry the username from my cold dead hands. We came up with so many ideas together, most of which didn’t hold a lot of water, but were important, nonetheless. This was the start of much of my collaborative and conceptual skills, building increasingly complex plots and making up all sorts of characters.
As I got older, my dad continued his quest to dump as many of his special interests onto his children as possible. At least he has good taste. When driving back and forth between his house and my mom’s, we listened to the audio books for Brandon Sanderson’s Reckoners and Alcatraz series. When I started high school, I began both Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, using my dad’s well loved copies. I was hooked, and was able to convince my mom to take me to both the Oathbringer release tour and the Skyward release tour, where I got to shake the hand of Mr. Sanderson himself.
Later in high school, I took a creative writing elective. I enjoyed the simple short story and pilot episode plots we did, and in this class was where the start of Of Voyages and Virtues, my first fleshed out novel project, came to be. Much of the plot is the same as it was then, with the ideas of expendability and unity being some of the core ideals of the story. I did almost all of this planning solely in my head, often times while running laps in PE to keep my mind distracted from the inevitable stitch in my side. Of course, my first chapter was not a magnificent work of art, but it was something; it was a start.
Creative writing was never my initial plan for my college career. Becoming an English teacher was my solid goal, but originally, I was a Spanish minor, and planned to be certified to teach both English and Spanish. I took Intro to Creative Writing early on and loved it, and knew I would incorporate a lot of the writing skills into my courses and eventual career. But next fall, when I opened my second-year Spanish textbook, I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted. I changed my minor the very next day and kept going down the creative writing track.
Surprisingly, I went deeper into poetry than I did fiction writing. I gained an appreciation for poetry in my senior year of high school, but more so for reading it rather than writing. In my intro class in college, we read Vantage, by CWUs very own Taneum Bambrick, and I was transfixed. Poetry became more than I ever thought it could be. It was gross and raw and made you feel something. It no longer was just poetic flowery nonsense but was a way to portray complex thoughts and ideals that otherwise cannot be put to words.
I took another poetry class under poet Maya Jewell Zeller, and this is where I began my current poetry project Internal Salvation. All of the poems I wrote were ones that fit the themes of religion and identity, which helped me through my journey through understanding my personal beliefs and stances. I learned so much about myself while I wrote, and hope one day my poems will help others do the same.
I took more classes with Zeller, and even was able to take one with my beloved favorite Bambrick. It was wonderful getting to hone my craft and my language, all the while building a collection that is almost ready to see the light.
In March of 2023, I attended the AWP Conference & Bookfair in Seattle. It was a wonderful experience, where I got to talk with many poets, spend all day buying and reading new books, and I even got to meet Bambrick in person for the first time. This was my first experience where I got to really feel like I belonged in the world of writing and publishing. At every booth I went to, I would get asked “Are you a writer?” or ‘Are you a poet?”. With each answer of “yes”, it felt more and more real, that yes, I am a poet. I am an author. My current position of aspiring does not invalidate the fact that I am doing these things, that I do have these goals. This experience really solidified my goals and desire to finally be published.
This fixation on poetry does not mean that I gave up on my stories. A few friends and I started a creative writing group, where we shared our poetry and novel drafts together and gave loads of feedback. This is where I picked back up with OVaV, and where I scrapped my entire first draft and started fresh, with the first chapter that we have today (although in a much less polished form).
My process has always been one heavy on collaboration and input. I enjoy having people read my drafts and figure out what they do and don’t like. One thing that took me a long time to learn was that I don’t need to please everyone. In fact, you can’t! I also have learned that I can keep things how I want them sometimes, and that not every piece of feedback can be accepted. It is essential to digest it, but not to get caught up in it, which I often did initially. Every comment on my Google doc needed to be resolved immediately. Now I let them simmer.
Another friend-oriented literature group that played an important role in my progression into writing was forming a book club with Ava and our dear friend and frequently-commissioned artist, Olivia. One of the best ways to get better at writing is by reading, after all, and we’ve enjoyed so many different styles and genres of writing together.
My senior year, I was able to be one of CWU’s Lion Rock Visiting Writer Series interns, which allowed me to meet, introduce, and discuss writing, publishing, and poetry with an array of creatives, like T.J. Tranchell, Roy Scranton, Callum Angus, and more. I now proudly have a signed book from most of these authors, and I appreciate the insights I gained from them. I even got to read my own poems at a few of these events, getting to enjoy sometime in the limelight.
My very last quarter of full-time college, I took advanced fiction writing with author Ali Unal. Here, I was able to fully outline and work through my opening chapter of OVaV, and practice workshopping with my peers. It was a wonderfully collaborative class and I gained some lifelong peers. I haven’t worked much on that project since then, but I know that when the time is right I can pick it up quickly.
Since graduating, I’ve enjoyed having time to work on various projects while I work as a substitute teacher. This is where most of my progress on Fae Marked has come from, the project that currently has the bulk of my attention. I was also able to submit and get published in CWU’s 35th edition of Manastash, their student literary journal. Being able to celebrate my first time in print has been an honor, and I’m eager for the next time I get to share my work and get it out into the world.
And here I am now! Starting this blog with my dear friend to create a digital footprint and a spot to post my thoughts, share ideas, and hopefully connect to others in the wonderful field of writing and reading. I hope you stick around!
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