Where it all began....

Long before I began writing actual full-length stories I was obsessed with reading.  One of my fondest memories growing up was hiding under my blanket with my flashlight trying to finish just one more chapter after bedtime before I was found out.  When I was in elementary school anything that introduced a new world would do, one of my all time favorites was THE BFG (a book I still have and read to my children at any opportunity).  As a teenager, racy romance novels were my go-to.  Now?  I don't have a neat little box of preferred genres anymore.  I read anything and everything; from spine chilling horrors, to feel good, mushy love stories, if the concept is fresh and the characters are raw, I can get into it.

I always wanted to ask Joanna Lindsey and my other favorites where their inspiration came from.  I don't remember a time where I wasn't writing poetry or short stories, but it wasn't until my mid-twenties that an idea hit me so hard I could actually pull a full novel length piece of work out of it.  My first novel (which I titled THE ROMAN MONGREL) was a historical fiction novel about a princess from Galatia that was captured by the Romans.  I came across her story on the web from an article called "Princesses Too Badass for Disney" and I fell in love with her at once.  There was so little information about her available and I was appalled to see that such a brave woman never had a book written to tell her story.  But then after thinking about it, women in literature have sadly been backed into a corner, you're hard-pressed to find a book with a truly strong woman without a man behind her doing the pushing.  That's when I started my mission:  I was going to write a series about women that history swept under the rug.

And so it began.  I wrote the novel and sat on it for a while before deciding to query agents about 6 months ago.  I only queried a few before an idea for a fantasy novel distracted me and I lost sight of my original goal.  I'm still in love with the book that started it all, but my other work is just as exciting for me.  

It should be noted that I just recently got a reply back from the first novel requesting a full (second full request out of the six queries that I sent, woohoo!), so there is still hope that it will see the light of day.  The fantasy book that I have titled HEALING THE BAYOU is also out on full request and it is this novel that I have entered in PitchWars.  

I would love to hear where my fellow PitchWars writers inspiration came from.  Tell me your story!