Hello everyone!
Thank you for signing up for my newsletter. As this is my first entry, I figured I would take a moment to share a bit about myself and my love for writing.
I suppose you could say my passion for storytelling began at a young age, and I can probably be traced back to the first time I saw Jurassic Park. I was around five or six when my parents took me to the theater, and despite probably being too young for such a film, it left a profound impact on me.
In first grade, our teacher assigned us to write a book that she would laminate and bind. I chose to write my own story that was a mix between Jurassic Park and this film from the 1970’s titled Planet of the Dinosaurs. I was weird kid. From that moment on, instead of focusing solely on my schoolwork, I found myself lost in my notebook, writing stories and creating characters. It was my escape, a chance to daydream and imagine worlds far better than my own.
Growing up in a household where expressing feelings wasn’t encouraged, writing became a perfect outlet for me. Through fiction, I could explore and articulate emotions that I often struggled to understand or felt too vulnerable to share. I cleverly masked my feelings behind the lives of my characters, allowing them to express what I couldn’t.
During my college years, I began to take writing more seriously and ventured into writing and directing my own films. The first film I wrote and directed is something I don’t talk about, and I’m pretty sure I’ve destroyed every copy in existence! However, there were some projects I felt genuinely proud of. One of the best screenplays I felt I ever wrote was called My Love Lextacy. What made it special to me was its raw honesty. It was one of the first times I allowed myself to be truly vulnerable and shared that vulnerability with strangers. Eventually, after I decided to give up on my dream of being a filmmaker, I returned to what I loved most: writing. This led me to writing my first book. I chose to adapt my screenplay into a novel, a challenge I had never undertaken before.
Writing a novel is a vastly different experience than working on a screenplay. I find it both more challenging and liberating; there’s so much more I can do with words on the page than in a screenplay. In a novel, I can explore a character’s emotional state far more deeply than I can with mere dialogue. Plus, I’m no longer restricted by budgetary constraints or filming logistics. In a novel, I’m free to unleash the beast without limits! I can do whatever the hell I want.
I’ll never forget the excitement of holding my first published novel in my hands. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of validation—I was an author. Yet, that validation was short-lived. Despite all that I have achieved, I still grappled with feelings of inadequacy and questioned whether I was truly legitimate as a writer. This struggle is something I believe all creatives face, whether in music, painting, or writing. Still, I love the challenge. I cherish that moment when inspiration strikes and the feeling that comes when something unexpected happens—when a character makes a choice that takes me by surprise.
For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, thank you. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my work. I put a lot of effort into what I write, meticulously reviewing the details to make sure they’re as perfect as they can be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rewritten sentences and paragraphs—or how often I’ve changed the entire direction of a story halfway through. But it’s all in the hopes that anyone who stumbles upon my stories might feel something or be impacted in some way, just as Jurassic Park once affected me.
Thanks again for stopping by, and I’ll see you each month!
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