It all started when...

To understand our story, we must start at the beginning. I'll rush over the boring bits. You're welcome! Haha. I have been writing all my life. The earliest I remember, and have proof of, is when I was six. I wrote poetry for my mom, and I remember thinking (and telling her) that someday I wanted to write for Hallmark! Not every normal girl's dream job, I know. Normally when you're six you hope to grow up to be a princess or a fairy. Not a writer for a greeting card company. Anyway. Also around that time is when my sister and I started acting out elaborate stories involving our stuffed animal. (We had hundreds) Our stories could last anywhere from a day to several weeks!! We never got bored of adding twists and turns to torture our poor toys with.

The big step that I consider my first real interest in the world of story telling was when I was ten and had my first sleepover. My best friend (at the time) Kinza had been inviting me to her house for months and our parents finally agreed!! I took my Barbies, and she and I stayed up half the night playing with them. But when the lights went out, and neither of us wanted to sleep, I decided to finish our game by telling her the rest in a story. She was captivated. Hooked! Whenever we were together she'd ask for another. Sometimes she'd stay up all night listening. I couldn't believe it. Story telling was so fun!!

I was homeschooled through the sixth grade. Entering middle school was my first experience at the world outside of my home and church. I was twelve. My class wasn't the friendliest bunch of girls you'd ever meet, but I did make a couple friends with girls in the classes below and above me. Two girls in particular were in the six grade class at our little Christian Academy while I was in the seventh. Judy and Clarissa. They became two of my best friends (at the time) and we did everything together. Even a basketball trip to the state championships in San Antonio, TX. It was then that I shared with them my love for story telling. They were as eager to listen as I was to tell, but we couldn't always spend several hours together while I told my little tales. So I wrote them down. I'd write several pages in my own classes, then pass it to them in the next class for them to read. Having someone read my work page by page as I wrote it, and begging for more, was a real ego boost I needed at that point in my life and the reason I still write today! That's what kickstarted my love for writing. But it wasn't until several years later that I'd discover what brought my true best friend and I together.