Merry Christmas…

So, if you’re like my family, you celebrated Christmas in some form yesterday and I hope that your holiday was fun. Again, if you’re like my family, you celebrate with family either through an actual get-together, phone calls, texts, SnapChats, Facebook posts, or any combination of those. So, the day is filled with family and friends and often a great deal of “spirits” of all kinds!! As a published author, I always field questions about my books: plot lines, characters, how well they’re selling, where to get them, when’s the next one coming out, and the inevitable, who’s the next book dedicated to. That’s a fun one as there seem to be more and more relatives vying for that honor and the discussions (more like confrontational debates) can get awkward if not quite heated. If you know me at all, you know that I hate confrontations.

Now, if you also know me and my books, you know that The Forgotten was dedicated to my nephew Henry, a fourth year at Annapolis. (I always add that epithet in when I bring up Henry because I am one PROUD aunt. Just saying.) Here’s the reason why: when I was challenged/encouraged by my daughter to do something with all those horridly bad fan fiction stories from middle school and high school, I started writing what is now my Valaraii Rising Trilogy. As I was writing it, several people asked to read it; so, I would print off what I had, put it in a binder, and give it to them. I was actually really interested in their feedback. You can guess what happened…no one ever read those pages. (That doesn’t do a lot for your confidence in your work.) No one read them until Henry. Henry sat down and read the pages while on a beach trip with us on Pawley’s Island. Every last page and then gave me awesome feedback that really bolstered my confidence. So, of course, the first book had to be dedicated to him. He’s the reason I had the confidence to even finish the work.

For The Lost, I chose my daughter and if you’ve seen the dedication, you know that its says, “For my daughter, Emma Grace. Be kind….of a badass. I love you.” I thought that dedication was perfect because my daughter is the one who first challenged me to do something with my writings and then (albeit during an argument) further challenged me to try and get my work published. Plus, the series itself is full of strong female characters who aren’t in the background but front and center. Strong, independent female characters developed by a woman. Strong, independent female characters modeled after women in my life as well as inspired by the type of women I want myself to be and my daughter as well. There’s a reason my favorite sweatshirt is just that. (Not because it’s red and I do look fabulous in red. That’s just a bonus.) I LOVE the quote on it: “Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.” I believe I’ve raised one. I mean, she’s amazing, independent, intelligent, major math brain, phenomenal runner, beautiful soul, and gorgeous.

So, I guess the race is on for my book three dedication. It’s title The Dead so I’m not sure how any of my living relatives might feel about that book’s dedication. Right now, they don’t seem to care as they are all about being the one whose name is on that page in the front of the book. I have a few ideas, including my students. I mean, I wouldn’t be a teacher without them and I certainly wouldn’t be the teacher I am without them.

So I read a lot…

I love reading and have been quite a voracious reader since elementary school. I loved Dr. Seuss and Amelia Bedelia followed by Nancy Drew and Jane Austin. Not a real fan of the Bronte sisters—too dark and depressing. I found Tolkien, which you already know helped lead to this trilogy. I got into nonfiction with Elie Weisel’s Night and began years of memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, and most often, specific histories (ie. Stephen King’s JFK or Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage. After reading Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in high school, I became very interested in Native American history and read anything and everything I could get my hands on—fiction o nonfiction or a blend. I also read everything I could find on world mythology, folklore, and legends, which is where the idea of the wereling originated.

In a book or books whose title(s) I cannot remember, I read about various legends of shapeshifters. The ones that gave me the idea for the wereling came from Romania, I believe, where you could get out of punishment for being outed as a witch if you said that you were actually a shapeshifter protecting your village from vampires and other evils. Perhaps that’s where the ancient lore about the war between vampires and werewolves originated. I don’t remember if what I was reading ever said that or it just became my idea. As I have said, I have read a lot of books in my life and sometimes stories, facts, and ideas run together.

Anyway, when I began writing my bad fan fiction, the wereling weren’t a race but a couple characters who could transform—one into a black wolf and another into a mountain lion. Neither was especially good or evil. They were just there interacting with my character who became Sylle. When my daughter challenged me to do something with all my horrid stories of the past, those two characters morphed into the wereling race—a group of beings who were animal and human—and I chose three of my favorite animals for them: bears (think Kodiak), wolves (because no shapeshifting story is complete without wolves; plus, they are absolutely the coolest), and mountain lions (because nothing is as unsettling as a catamount shrieking in the mountains of Appalachia).

Their power and strength is what made them a target for extermination. In The Lost, Sylle must get her group safely through their desolate kingdom and to say the journey is unsettling for everyone in the group would be an understatement. But are they all gone or do some remain? Or is it only their dead that occupy the mountains who still remain? You’ll have to read my book to find out.

In The Dead, which is the final book in the trilogy and comes out in 2026, I introduce one last type of wereling inspired again by all the mythology and legends I have read. These wereling are the rarest of the rare and can shapeshift into one of the rarest and in my mind, one of the coolest creatures from mythology. I look forward to everyone meeting them.

The art (?) of world building

My dad is not a fantasy fan. In fact, Dad has read exactly two fantasy novels in his life—mine. I know he read them because I wrote them and for no other reason, which is sweet; but he’s also my greatest fan. He loves to tell anyone who will listen about how much he loves my books and how amazing they are, which is his right as my dad; but whenever he tells these stories, at some point, he always says something along the lines of “I kept thinking, ‘How did Kris ever come up with this?’” He still tells me how amazed he is that I thought up these stories and the realms and creatures of MithTerra—something I never gave much thought to. To be honest, world building wasn’t something that I thought a lot about, but I understand it’s importance in a story. So, how do you create real stories that speak to an audience, that are believable—especially when it’s a totally fictional world full of orc, elves, wereling, dwarves, goblin—species that don’t exist in our real world?

You start with what is real and believable to you because if you can’t believe it, if you can’t see yourself and/or others in your story, how can you possibly expect others to do that? MithTerra works, Middle Earth works, Westeros works, because they are innately human. They are broken, dark, kind, beautiful. Everything humanity is. That’s what makes a world believable even if none of the creatures or realms ever existed in reality. The link to our humanity. We can see ourselves in the story. Have seen someone like that character. Experienced a similar situation. It makes sense to us.

I’ve already expressed how Tolkien inspired me to start my stories by trying to write myself into Middle Earth, but my world building comes from many sources. I am a voracious reader of not only Tolkien but a plethora of other authors as well. Not all fantasy. Other than C. S. Lewis, Tolkien is really my only fantasy author. Wait, I did read a Fablehaven book once a long time ago that I though was pretty good and I did love A Wrinkle in Time. But mainly, I have read nonfiction…a LOT of nonfiction on a wide range of subjects—WWII, various presidents, the Holocaust, Tecumseh, American history—as well as enough mythology (and not just Greek and Roman) to get me an honorary doctorate on the subject. All of this stories helped me create my world and my characters, not to mention my own life experience.

My family and friends and even a few former students are evident in the characters of my books. That’s what helps make them “real” to me. I see myself and others I know within their depths. So, when you create whatever you create, fill it with your reality, your knowledge, your stories and experiences. That will make it real to others. That will make it believable and have people nodding, laughing, and relating to your work. It’s all about making it human.

Confidence

Creativity doesn’t stem from some deep well of talent within one person’s brain and it doesn’t just exist in only certain people. Everyone can create. I do get tired of hearing my students tell me what they can’t do, instead of just trying first; and every time something gets turned in, I get the litany of why it isn’t good. I get it. I do the same myself with the things I create. It took my daughter challenging me during an argument for me to try and get published. I realized I was failing her because I was showing my child I had no confidence in myself or my abilities. To say I was devastated at the revelation would be an understatement.

I want my daughter to strive for greatness, not be held back by insecurities. I want the same for my students. They’re all amazing strong, creative individuals. Who cares if our stick figures don’t look like stick figures? Neither do Picasso’s. When I was a proud new mama, I was visiting friends. Both were parents. I was sure they would see the gorgeous entity that was my beautiful baby girl. The woman had no interest in my daughter. In fact, she looked me straight in the face and said, “Don’t be offended but I don’t want to hold your daughter. I never liked kids. They don’t get interesting until they’re at least in their twenties.” The point is that there is no single person who everyone loves. There is no single piece of art, literature, music, architecture, anything actually, that everyone adores. Take cars. You favor Fords, or Toyotas, or Chevrolets, or whatever brand. Or you like SUVS or coupes or sports cars. How about music? I could start a war in my classroom just bringing up Taylor Swift. She’s either the end all be all, couldn’t care less, or sucks, depending on who’s doing the rating. But that’s my point.

Not everyone is into fantasy. So, obviously, not everyone is going to like my books. They may never be New York Times bestsellers, but I’m published. And many people have told me how much they have enjoyed reading my work. More importantly, (to me, anyway) I showed my daughter that I could believe in myself, even when it was terrifying, which opening your work to others is. It’s a part of your soul, a part of your heart, and when you share it with others, you often want to qualify it to them to lessen the blow if they don’t like it. I get that. Creativity is hard. Opening up to others is hard, let alone to the whole world. I just hope that my students understand that they don’t have to qualify their work for me. I always find good in whatever they truly put effort into regardless of whether or not their poetry rhymes or their stick figures look like stick figures.

Inspiration

My students often tell me when given a writing assignment that they have no idea what to write and very often that inspiration is one of the most difficult parts of writing. For my trilogy, Valaraii Rising, my inspiration was Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as I have said many times. I discovered the series thanks to an English teacher who assigned independent reading—we had to read 1200 pages a semester—and was convinced I would like the trilogy. With much reluctance, I started The Fellowship of the Ring on a Friday after school and finished the series by Sunday night. My English teacher was right.

I can still remember how mad I was when I reached the final page. Tolkien had created such a magnificent world, Middle Earth, and amazing characters that I didn’t want to leave his realm. I wanted the stories to continue and my immersion in that world to never stop. So, I started writing exceptionally bad fan fiction (for myself, of course). In this way, I could continue to live in Middle Earth as my own character—the character that his world was missing—a strong warrior woman. His stories fueled my imagination and I channeled that creativity to create a world and characters all my own that revolved around me—or an idealized version of me. Frankly, the only characteristics that Sylle and I share are the fact that we both have blue eyes and curly brown hair and an intensity about the importance of family. I wouldn’t know the first thing about sword fighting or hand-to-hand combat or destroying orc. I can shoot an arrow decently. I wouldn’t say amazingly, but I can hit a target. It might be the outer edge, but I can hit it.

The point is that Tolkien inspired my world, but it was truly my deep desire to be seen, to be powerful and not a pushover, to have control and not be bullied that inspired my character. She has evolved over the MANY years since school, as have all my characters and the worlds of my story; but Sylle remains at her core the person I always dreamed of being: strong, independent, intelligent, loved and admired, a leader.

That’s the thing about inspiration. It can come from so many different places, and it’s never just one thing that sparks our fire. Most often, it’s a combination of ourselves, our desires and hopes and dreams, and our experiences. Shakespeare created his famous play Romeo and Juliet from an extremely long poem that itself had been inspired by earlier Italian novellas and even ancient Roman tales. That’s the point. Inspiration is everywhere you look and in everything you see, read, feel, and do. It’s why I have so many journals filled with so many ideas. Maybe one day I’ll get to them all, but there are many, all the poems for starters, that are probably best left in those journals.

Embracing the Uncomfortable

Well, here we go. My first blog post. Yikes. Who would have thought I would ever be here? Writing on the internet about myself, my hopes, my thoughts, my writings. Actually, who’d have thought I ever would have published two books with the third due out next year and plenty ideas for more? That’s the interesting, terrifying, and fun thing about life—you truly never know what is right around the corner.

Since it is my first post, I should probably tell you a bit about myself beyond what you have seen on this page or in my bio on my books. The epithet on my homepage is correct. I am a teacher and an author. I’ve been teaching since 1995 (yes, I’m old) and a published author since 2024, but I’ve been writing and creating for as long as I can remember. Writing stories, really bad poems, memories, ideas. I have journals all through my desk at home with half-started ideas, outlines for new ideas, fully completed stories, and random horrid poems that I wrote when I was trying to channel my inner Emily Dickinson. Apparently, I don’t have one of those.

I’m an introvert who loves my space and recharges with a good book or writing journal, a glass of wine or cup of tea (depending on the time of day) sitting in a quiet place I’ve found for myself. I prefer that solitude to crowds and the overwhelming stress of the public, especially when I need to make a good impression or carry on a conversation with someone I don’t know. I’ve heard most authors are introverts, so I guess I’m in really good company. Strangely, my jobs in life have not been for those who don’t like to be social. I mean, I’m in a classroom for seven and a half hours a day with a large group of ever-changing teenagers or walking through halls filled with people during class changes. I’m always with people and many of those people sit in front of me, eyes staring me down, asking questions, answering mine, interacting with me nonstop, especially since Tennessee banned cell phones in the classroom. My middle school and high school selves would never believe I chose this job. I mean, I spent my entire life hiding in the background hoping no one would notice me and force me to interact. Teaching was not an idea for me, but ever since I stumbled upon this career and ended up in a classroom, I have loved it. And it doesn’t hurt that my students are pretty amazing in their own right.

Now, I’ve added author to my resume and it has been daunting. The things I never realized—the social media requirements, the interviews, the book signings. There’s so much more than just writing the words. One of my interviews is linked on this website and you’re welcome to watch it. It was with Daytime TriCities, who also interviewed me when my first book came out. Now that interview, I hope, has disappeared into a digital black hole. It was my first interview ever and I was so nervous I actually cried at one point. I left the studio and got to my car and couldn’t remember one thing I had said during the interview. I think I’ve gotten a little bit better since then. I, at least, feel more comfortable.

Maybe that’s the point of this post—embracing the uncomfortable, instead of always playing it safe. Safety is good, but stepping out of your comfort zone periodically can bring you experiences you never could have imagined.