Travels Expand the Vision:

Since moving to the United states as a little girl, I have lived in Pennsylvania, California, Alaska, and Georgia, in that order. From the right coast to the left coast to the top left of the country to the bottom right.

My migration pattern almost criss-crosses the country the way Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land does.

And all over the country, as we drove from place to place and stayed in camp grounds along the way, and even before that, when we moved from Taiwan to the States, and as we drove through Europe, we met interesting and diverse people. The world is full of colorful people. But under the diversity and the various shades of culture and clothing and skin tones, there were similarities wherever we went. People cried when they were sad and they smiled when they wanted to show friendship and in their hearts they harbored hopes and dreams. I saw this clearly as I traveled.

Books Also Expand the Vision:

But even if you've never traveled, you can go new places and meet new people.

The summer I turned eight I fell in love with reading and I connected with a whole new group of friends. With books you are never limited to the kid next door who picks his nose and eats his boogers. In books, you have the whole wide world to explore and cool kids to explore with.

When I was reading, I often hung with dangerous friends, even.

And I traveled. Far from home. And I fought evil...and came home late...and lived to tell about it.

Treasure Island ravished me first. After that, so many followed that it would be impossible for me to choose a favorite. Should I be forced, would I pick The Scarlet Pimpernel orTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or The Mysterious Island?

The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy taught me to love loyalty and courage. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, and Heidi made me laugh and cry and filled me to bursting with lovely language. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Little Princess chilled me and thrilled me, as the sweetest girls fell under the power of the most formidable villains, yet ended up victorious. Robinson Crusoe, Wrinkle in Time, Fahrenheit 451…---all of these books helped me grow up and shaped the person I’ve become.

These stories had conflict and action and color and noise. The characters opened their hearts to me and allowed me to share their lives. They taught me to relate to the world. They expanded my vision, helping me to see, to hear, and to sympathize---in short, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn. They spoke eloquently of the human condition---the universal joys and sorrows of life.

I still love children’s books---The Wilderking Trilogy, the Inkheart books, The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Artemis Fowl, Holes, Airman, Sarah Plain and Tall, The City of Ember, East, The Amaranth Enchantment, Fly By Night…they move me. They draw me in. They remind me to laugh and to worship the God who has given us so much beauty in the midst of this desert wherein we wander.

When I was six, I wrote a humorous story and when the teacher read it aloud, the whole class laughed in all the right places. I decided then that I’d be a writer when I grew up. I wanted to write so I would be understood.

When, at eight, I fell in love with reading, my desire to write gained strength. I wanted to write to give something back. To give others the same joy my favorite authors had given me. I wanted to write great books. Books that would whisk children over stormy seas and across vast deserts, into strange new worlds.

I still want that. I want to write books that will make readers ache with longing as they turn the last page. Books with characters you know by heart and deeply love---characters who have suffered and struggled and overcome.

I have not yet written any great books, but the really cool thing is that as long as I am studying my craft, I can justify lugging hundreds of books home from library book sales and spending a fortune in book stores, not to mention clicking so often on that little BUY NOW button at Amazon. :)

If that's not enough for you, you can find me on Google+ or at my Google+ page or my Facebook page or on Twitter or on Stumble Upon.