Words Saved My Life
I thought about making this a professional bio, but I want this to be a personal journey. I want you to know me, as a writer, as a mother, as a person, as a woman over 40, as me. So a professional bio is available, but here I am.
Words are what helped me survive my childhood. At first it was little me hiding under the covers to finish multiple books I brought home. Or singing my heart out about wanting to go outside when it was raining. As I grew older and faced life’s challenges, I discovered that when hardships blocked my path to happiness, words became my refuge. Writing and storytelling offered me an escape, a doorway to a happier, more carefree place where my imagination could thrive and my spirit could find peace.
Words for my solitude, the only way I knew how to express the pain that was in my soul, how I survived abuse, assault, bullying, heartbreak, and feelings of abandonment. The emotions I felt were too heavy and hard to hold in. I tried therapy, but I have yet to find one who can truly understand me, especially back then. So writing became my therapy, and eventually it turned into a passion that I developed.
“Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.”
-Janelle Monae, Singer, Rapper, and Actress
Writing as an outlet began with my mother placed me in an inpatient facility, one of the art therapist had us lay on big pillows and close our eyes. We listened to Indie.Arie, Erykah Badu, or nature signs. We meditated and allowed ourselves to feel. Then we wrote. I was always one of the last ones to finish my writing. My case manager put a cup of tea and a pen in my hand and I went for it. It became my therapy. My safe place, and the way I best communicate.
I began shaping my pain into colorful made of short stories that ended in joy, yet my poetry was deeper. It was raw emotions that could be as simple as any subject placed in front of me. Or deeper that shared my soul. Writing became more than a hobby, but instead a lifeline.
“When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.”
Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights Activist
Taking my love for words, I discovered ways I could take those words and create a career path following my passion. I decided to go back to school after 4 kids, a failed marriage and a career path that felt unauthentic. I eventually graduated from Full Sail University with a BFA in Creative Writing (for Entertainment). In this program I learned how to write every genre, and every style including comic book writing, game writing, tv writing and writing for the media.
I didn’t stop there, I went back and earned a graduate certificate in Media Communications, and my Master’s in Public Relations. Helping me to learn how to take my storytelling skills to another dimension.
In my career journey I learned to us my skills to create more than just language for a brand, but pull the storytelling of a brand. I have combined that with my love for books and the publishing journey and I have started AuthorPath. I want to help self published authors get their books out while retaining 100% of all ownership of their books.
“Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy—‘to stand outside’—comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away.”
– bell hooks
I hope you stay awhile. To stay updated, sign up for my email, read some blogs, or message me. I love to chat about (almost) anything.
