We decided to feature some of our founding authors over the next week. We asked them all the same two questions:
- What made you become an author?
- Which one of your books would you like more readers to discover?
Here’s what Terri A. Wilson, Cameron D. Garriepy, and Dylann Crush had to say…
“I’ve wanted to write books since I was in second grade, but I lived in a world that didn’t promote art because there wasn’t time. Art didn’t pay; only hard work at some mediocre job would equal success. It took me almost forty years before I published the first time. I entered a short story contest and I won. I tweeted about it and used a quote from J.K. Rowling. Of course, I tagged her and never thought she would see it. She did and responded to it. I think that’s when I realized that the “author world” was not some fantasy land where only a select few had permission to enter. It also worked third shift at a convenient store and hated it. I felt like I had no control over my life and how I lived it. Writing was the only thing I had control over. It became therapy and perhaps what kept me from losing all my marbles. Since then, it has almost become like a drug in that I miss it if I go a few days without doing it. It’s my goal to write stories that readers will lose themselves in. I want them to see a world of what could be. I write happily ever afters because I will always believe in love and happiness. I write paranormal romance because I think humans are boring.“
| “I’ve been writing love stories since middle school. I rather infamously wrote a kind of ALL MY CHILDREN meets SWEET VALLEY HIGH graphic novel where the characters were all either named for my BFFs or V.C. Andrews characters (and that one teacher my friend was crushing on… OMG) and looked like poorly drawn Barbies. It was 1990, pop culture was in a weird place and I’m not an artist. In college, my friend found out I read romance novels while studying English lit, creative writing, and classical music, and teased me about it mercilessly, but he also predicted I’d write my own some day. When I lost my job and was at home with my toddler, I sat down at my kitchen table in a fuzzy pink bathrobe and gave it a shot. It took a lot longer than I thought to get from there to publishing, but that book eventually became DAMSELFLY INN and the trilogy that followed.” |
“I started writing as an escape for myself. I’d just been laid off and was staying at home with three small kiddos. The days were long and I missed chatting with grown-ups so I joined a few women for a writing group. When I realized I could make them laugh and provide a little bit of an escape from the everyday for them too, it gave me something to look forward to each month. Before I knew it, I had a full-length manuscript on my hands. Now I write for the other women who need a little respite, a bit of heart and humor in their days. And I write romance because I feel like everyone can use a little more love in their lives.”
