Hey!
I’ve been writing since I was 18. I know many authors always loved to read and write, and they always wanted to be a writer but… not me. I actually hated reading as a kid. I had to be pulled out of class in grade school because I was behind in reading which I was very self conscious about by the way. I was a painfully shy kid and didn’t want any attention, let alone the “she can’t read good” attention.
As I got older my reading was fine but I didn’t enjoy it. Until my senior year of high school I didn’t read anything that wasn’t required.
Then I became a library aide in 12th grade. Why? Destiny. Fate. Or probably it was an elective and I thought it would be an easy A. Back then cell phones weren’t a big thing yet. I didn’t have one, and things in the library got pretty boring so I picked up a book. Demon In My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I was hooked. Why didn’t I know books could actually be cool and exciting?! It’s likely because I didn’t know I would love fantasy books. I loved The Lord of the Rings movies that came out a few years prior but didn’t read the books until later.
While in the library, at home and every spare chance I had– lunch time at school– I sort of became a loner that year. I began reading a book every few days and was sucked in. After I graduated I thought, you know, I could write one of these kinds of books. So I did. I wrote an epic 130k word manuscript Fire & Ice in about 2 months. My family actually started to worry I was depressed because I sat at the computer writing all day. But i wasn’t depressed at all. I was enjoying creating this amazing new world.
The summer I graduated high school (2005) A distant family member invited me to a writing critique group that met every Wednesday and I went religiously for years. I entered into a novel contest at age 19 and took 5th out of 30 for my manuscript Dragonwings. It’s because of this group that I kept at it and got infinitely better.
Then life happened, I got a job, friends, dating, got married had a baby and books got put on the back burner. Although i still wrote, just not as much. Then July 2018 I decide I’m going publish my book RISE. I’d been working on it for 2 years (off and on) and was incredibly happy with the way it turned out. I think why I waited so long is because I wasn’t fully satisfied with my writing. I thought it could be better. But after 13 years of writing it was time.
And so here we are now I’ve been publishing for 7 years (2026). Time sure does fly! The Elf Queen series was the series that “took off” for me, and is loved by thousands of people! It still amazes me and I thank God everyday. I’ve become a full time author, and I love that this is my life!
Thanks for stopping by!
-J.M. Kearl
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