Way, way back in the early 1990s, I penned my first story. It was about 100 squirrels and I even drew illustrations to go with it. MY dad bound it with one of those spiral binders (you know, the thick black chunky ones) and I was so proud of it. Granted, an artist I am not (kind of comes with the territory when you're only working with one good eye). But that little tale sparked something in me.

It wasn't until high school in my Freshman English class when that story bug would take another chomp out of me. Not all of the things I wrote in that class were very good but it was a foundation for what would develop as I grew older. At that point, though, I wasn't fully comfortable playing in my own worlds. So I dabbled in high school through college with fan fiction. Harry Potter, Power Rangers, Charmed and Star Trek Voyager were my main fandoms and each story helped me begin to hone my craft a little more. From the beginnings of crafting a natural flow of dialogue to planning out a story arc, the safety net of these worlds gave me the comfort to start inching closer to what would one day become the writer I am today.

I still remember the first novel I wrote; a time-hopping tale of a woman taken on a journey to see how her death would alter the course of the lives around her called Love, Rebecca Lynn. The next novel I penned, The House of Jacob, was a history-spanning vampire tale that could have done with a lot more location research. Both weren't great but they did serve as the building blocks for me to improve my storytelling ability. And importantly, they began to open me up to accepting criticism and feedback. For a long time, I hated editing my own work. It's still not my favorite part of the process, but I have now reached a point where I can accept the feedback and know that it will only make the story and characters stronger. Over the next few years, I genre hopped a lot. From young adult mythology, to adult women's fiction (and my first published book) to fantasy.

Along the way, I did what all good authors were supposed to do in the mid-2000s; I queried agents and publishers. And I even landed an agent and later a couple of small presses. And along the way I also learned what types of stories were in my soul waiting to get out: fantasy tales of good triumphing over evil, of finding those we call family, even if they aren't our blood and unlikely heroes stepping up to save the day.

But as I'd find out, the agent and small press route wasn't the path for me. In 2016, I made the jump to self-publishing and it is because of that step that we've gotten here, where we can celebrate the Captivity series. The only good thing to come from the query period of my writing life was I met my co-author, Molly Zenk. But that is a story for another day.

For now, I want to leave with you another fun question that opens up the Captivity world a little more. In this world, sirens are used to hunt down other shifters for the benefit of the human elite. They do this with their siren song and objects obtained from the shifter they're after. So, if you had a shiver of sirens hot on your tail, what would they use to find you? I'd love to say it was a favorite book, but realistically, I don't go anywhere without my phone so that would probably be how they'd catch me!

And we are SO close to smashing our currently goals and I have some exciting extras to unlock once we reach them! So please share the campaign and make this anniversary celebration as big as we can!