Inspiration Over The Years

I have always been creative, since I was young. Though I started writing and drawing at an early age, in the beginning I actually wanted to be an archaeologist. The art work and hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians always intrigued me, and I had a fascination with Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. The idea of exploring old ruins and tombs to find artifacts was so exciting to me. In the end I didn’t pursue that early dream of becoming an archaeologist but I did start writing in hieroglyphics for fun. Everything always came back to writing and art in general. Even if it was in an ancient language.

My time spent reading over the years has been invaluable to me, and helped me to learn how to become a storyteller. I always wanted to be an author, and had so many interests it was difficult to choose what to write about next. I remember entering a contest in high school that ended up in my being able to partake in the Maui Writer’s Conference. The story was about a human who had become a cat and was going through a spiritual journey, with the main character rediscovering themselves as an animal.

I wrote about all kinds of things. Gladiators, Aztecs, geishas, elves, and romance in general were just some of the many subjects that I tackled. Then there was post apocalyptic Los Angeles. Originally my story about this topic was created as a graphic novel script, because once upon a time I wanted to be a sequential artist or comic book artist. In the end I chose to pursue journalism instead of art school. 

My years spent as a journalist was intriguing and a great learning experience. Through radio journalism and my experiences in news in general I learned a lot, like how to host music shows and write news stories. Writing news stories in particular was fun for me because it gave me an opportunity to learn and let people speak their mind. There are so many opinions and perspectives out there, and not everyone has a means to express themselves. But through journalism you can do that, and that is definitely a key aspect of the job that I really enjoyed.

Back to the topic of creative writing, vampires were a huge interest early on, too. I really enjoyed reading Anne Rice. Interview With A Vampire and The Queen of the Damned are just two of her books that I really enjoyed, and I highly recommend reading them if you haven’t already. There’s something fascinating about the elegance and the melancholy perspectives of vampires. They live forever, but what is the meaning of life then, when you are forced to watch the living grow old and fade into death? A common dilemma of the vampire is that they live forever and have to cope with this realization. They face boredom as the years pass them by, and they often battle loneliness. 

Like some of the Anne Rice vampires, my vampire characters struggle to coexist with the living, and are against taking the lives of the innocent. They actually seek to protect the living against other vampires and so there is this kind of battle between good and evil. 

My husband Luke has taught me a lot about the art of writing about vampires, and has recommended amazing reads about the monsters like Immanuel’s Veins by Ted Dekker. That elegance and sense of mystery are shown in the book as well. There is much to benefit from working together with other writers, especially when they are your beloved. 

Being able to bounce ideas off of each other is a huge benefit, and then there’s that second pair of eyes that can catch things that you miss in your own writing. Not to mention Luke often thinks of adding interesting elements to my storytelling I would not otherwise think of. We truly make a great team when we work on projects together.

In the end, whatever you end up doing, just make sure you love doing what you do. Don’t do anything that you aren’t passionate about. I mean really, what is the point of doing something that is different than your heart’s desires?