L’Engle (of the Madeleine, that is Wrinkle in Time and so much more) spun stories that respected the bigness of being young-but-not in the world. She didn’t shy from theology. Or writing plays or memoirs, or even a sequel to a novel penned some thirty-seven years earlier.
Lewis (of the C.S., that is Narnia and The Great Divorce) created worlds to live and dream inside and invited readers into his own as well. His stories surprised readers away from expected tropes and outcomes, focusing on the heart of his characters not just their outward and expected allegiances.
My youth was insular with church as the outward boundary for body, but authors gave me access to worlds within and beyond. They gave me something great to climb up from and over those walls.
Evelyn (of my mother, the fallen in The Dollhouse) had a pressing goal for her children: to learn to love books. Other agendas for my life had more complicated outcomes but this has never faltered.
Makiko (my neighbor and best friend at age nine) taught me to write books and illustrate them too. And also how to sell them to our apartment neighbors. Basically, everything I’d need to know about living a life of writing.
It took finishing one master’s degree (in theology, still trying to figure out my place in that world) to realize what I really wanted was another (in creative writing). I had to get practical about day jobs to do it. Every day since that turnabout has been about finding my whole self while also shifting between practical and magic on the daily.
I (of the circuitous route, the reader, the writer, now also mother) vibrate at my happiest when reading three or four books at a time: a novel by someone new to me; a fast read by a reliably great tale spinner; a memoir; maybe a guide to writing or running or being a person. Books in conversation with each other only because they happen to be read concurrently create a universe of joy between my ears.
If there is one theme I can’t escape writing about in everything I create it is how someone becomes themselves. What choices, circumstances, system, sorrow shaped them into who they are? And will they stay stuck or keep growing into themselves?
