I'm a twentysomething wife and mother trying to find her own place in the world outside of the “housewife” title. While I love and adore my two children, my heart is restlessly longing for a sibling group as a means to expand our family. As a result, we're in the process of adopting two little ones from the Philippines and that is currently my primary focus. I have a lot of love to give and I feel like I've been preparing for this moment my entire life and writing is my safe haven to vent all the feelings that come along with the human condition. Writing has become a sort of catalyst to make every dream I ever had come true.
I'm the girl that's been told her whole life that she's nothing special and will never do anything truly amazing, but I think anyone who can find self-worth along with the courage to love others the way nobody loved them—the power to rise above the self-deprecating thoughts and teach others that they’re worth more than that, is kind of remarkable, but then again, who am I? Where do you live?
I was born and raised in the same state that bore the talents of Jack White, Madonna, Tom Selleck, Kristen Bell, Stevie Wonder, Gilda Radner, Dave Coulier, Eminem…the list goes on!
Not to brag but, it is kind of the best state of the 50. I do wonder, however, how well my little ones will adjust to experiencing all four seasons after spending their lives in a tropical paradise…?!??
What’s your home life like?
My home life has always been nuts. I once tweeted, “When we arrived home, the caretaker was nowhere to be found. The chips were gone, the chair was broken. Is that blood on the wall?” That tweet was based on actual events! My current home life is nuts in the best possible way, though!
My house is constantly buzzing under renovation as we prepare to become a family of 6. The pitter patter of running feet is the music of my people. We have two cats, both named after Harry Potter characters. Our walls are covered in the art of my children and myself. I have a privileged life, but it didn’t happen by accident, contrary to popular belief. We’re just trying to create warm memories and raise our children to be respectable people as we get to know them for who they are, rather than who we want them to be. They change a little bit every day, and I think watching them discover who they are on their own terms is the most rewarding adventure anyone can embark on.
What genre(s) do you like to write? To read?
I don’t prefer to write any particular genre, but I do have a preference as to writing style, and that is discovery writing. I find things always seem to fall into exactly the right place at the right time.
As far as reading goes, I’ll read anything with a great story-line. I tend to gravitate toward anything written by Clive Barker, Jodi Picoult, JK Rowling, or Jane Austen.
Why did you start writing?
I started writing for fun when I was about seven or eight, and it wasn’t even my choice. I was, maybe, seven years old, camping with my awesome grandparents (which I’m so lucky to still have!) and it had been raining all day long! After exhausting all the board games with my grandma, I guess I was looking awfully pitiful laying around with my blank, bored, dead in the eye stare because my grandma threw a notebook and a pencil at me demanding I do something with it.
I banged out my first period piece about a little girl who was left to sell her toys and use her sewing skills to help her father put food on the table. (I never got to finish it, but the father was going to have to sell his daughter.) It was the first time anybody expressed any serious interest in anything I did. I started hiding notebooks under my mattress all the way up until I was gifted my firsts laptop. I still have every single one!
After I confided to my grandma about the first book I was about to publish, she actually pulled out that first original story I wrote all those years before and I cried like a baby. I had no idea she was saving it all those years. What do you do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing and playing with my kiddos, I’m handcrafting materials for a Montessori based religious formation class. It’s not your everyday catechesis. I’ve had to go through classes to earn my certification to teach 3-6-year old’s, which I taught for two years, then I earned my certification to teach 6-9-year old’s. I’m about to start my first year teaching this particular age group, which I’m super excited for! I’m currently the only person in my town that is certified to teach the 9-12-year-old’s, which means I’m the only one certified to build the classroom! All of which I volunteer for.
In my personal time, instead of writing for fun, I’m writing on the dotted line for all of the adoption forms that are due every few weeks. I’m completely burnt out given that all my writing time is spent doing all this other stuff for all these other people, but I wouldn’t change a second of it. I’ll have time to chase those other writing goals later.
Where do you like to go when looking for a new book to read?
I love to scour the little free libraries around my town when I’m looking for a new book. They’re filled with other people’s favorite books and I try to figure out what other people saw in that particular read to want to share it.
At what point do you call it quits when reading a new book?
If I’m four paragraphs deep and the story-line has still yet to develop, I call it quits. I can’t be bothered to translate that rosy posey word vomit.
Are you independently or traditionally published?
How many books/stories have you published so far?
I’ve published two books on Amazon. The first one is titled, “Hopeless Love” and the second is titled, “Starting Over.” Despite the titles, the two are completely unrelated. It seems important to note that neither titles deserve the “exactly what you’d expect” award. Prove me wrong.
What book/story are you currently promoting or working on?
I’m currently promoting, “Starting Over.” If you want to fully understand the pain that comes with grief compounded with the confusion that follows, and you also thrive on the drama of teens fueled with bad parenting, you’ll love it.
What’s the elevator pitch?
These are the official descriptions of both books:
“Starting Over” When Peter endures an untimely death, he leaves behind his wife and teenage son to navigate life without him. As grief transforms the relationships that surround them, they discover how those factors influence how they decide to deal with their pain, or not. What they discover will test the bond between mother and son, changing the course of their lives forever. “Hopeless Love” Worlds collide when Lilly meets a man who helps her discover what really matters to her in life. The only problem is her best friend standing in the way of her happiness. She’s faced with an ultimatum that forces her to decide between what she wants and what she needs, but what is she willing to sacrifice to get there? Her choices have the power to alter the lives of everyone around her. "I want to be free of living every day as if I'm in a play, acting out some part everyone else needs me to play." How long have you been working on it?
Both of these books took about two years to write. Writing them was easy, it was sharing that took forever to do! I was so scared to open up that I didn’t tell my parents or anyone, besides my grandparents, for an entire year after I published the first book that I had even written anything at all. I’m close to my family, but I used to be afraid of letting them down. I’ve since outgrown that.
How can readers find you?
What inspires you to keep writing?“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Anything you’d like to add?
Nobody asked, but the highlight of my life was the time I filled out a birthday card for Zac Hanson while they were on tour in Detroit and I wrote something like, “We’ve been together for 15 years, making this the longest relationship I’ve ever been in.” I even got to hand deliver it to Isaac Hanson, who is a stud in real life. These boys grew UP. I kid you not, Taylor Hanson got up on that stage and QUOTED MY WORDS!!!! to kick off that show. He also added, “Let’s keep it going.” People make fun me for even being there in the first place, but has a celebrity purposely quoted your words?
I owe a big, “thank you” to Nicholas Adams for giving me a voice. You heard my intentions and understood. You’re a real pal and I honestly cannot ever thank you enough simply for acknowledging what my family is embarking on, so don’t be a stranger and thank you again!
My thanks to Lavinia for participating in My Laughably Inane Blog. As one who's gone through the process of adopting kids, I wanted to do what I could to help her achieve her dream of adding non-biological kiddies into her family.
Sincerely,Nicholas P. AdamsJust a small-town boy with an overactive imagination.
1 Comment
Ben Nicholes
10/10/2019 06:21:40 pm
I enjoy these interviews! It's awesome to peek behind the curtain and see the Oz in each of them! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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