the beginning

I often thought that one day I would start a blog. I tried when I was in college, but I’m pretty sure I never made it past the initial “creating the website” stage. Plus, I was broke. Busy and broke, trying to be an author but focusing mainly on becoming a nurse. That was my life from 2019-2023, and somehow I managed to write Mya’s story: What Flames Can Give Us. It wouldn’t be until 2025 that her story came to life, but I remember postponing study session after study session for nursing exams just so I could write more of that story. I remember dreaming about what could happen with it, if I could ever publish it.

Now I’m here, sitting on my couch with a nursing license and a published novel. Who would’ve thought? Definitely not Nursing Student Riley.

This is the beginning of something new for me, fulfilling a dream I’ve had since I was in third grade. I wanted to become an author before anything else, and although I’m happy to be a nurse, I’m happier when I’m writing.

Of course, I certainly struggle with the marketing of a new novel and the lack of credibility as a new author. Nobody knows who I am, and they shouldn’t. I didn’t graduate in writing, nor did I attend a renown writing college. Yes, I have always been writing and I’ve always loved to write, but this is new to me. I joined this lifestyle off a dream and a drink (a whiskey and Coke, to be exact) and I’m happy to be writing, no matter the outcome. I thank God every day that He gave me the ability and opportunity to write. I hope people enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoy writing it.

I was born and raised in southern Indiana, and I married my high school sweetheart right before we both turned 23 years old. He became a nurse before me, and he has always been smarter. I love him for it. He’s always supported a writing career for me (I love him for that, too), and he walked with me during every step of the publishing process.

A little more about me: I love to read, knit, ice skate, indoor rock climb, craft, listen to music, hike, fish, camp, watch hockey, play cards, play sports, and play board games. In other words, I’m mediocre at a lot of things, and I hyper-fixate on a new hobby each month. However, writing has likely been my most consistent hobby. I believe I started writing stupid little stories and poems when I was maybe eight or nine, and barely literate.

I was around eleven years old when I wrote (and finished) my first novel, should we even call it that. It was a terribly written dystopian piece that actually had a decent plot, but it was horribly executed. Probably because I was a pre-teen that was obsessed with dystopian, futuristic stories with lots of action and traces of romance. Nonetheless, I kept writing on my parents’ old computer. When I was thirteen, I wrote a story about a girl who received letters from an anonymous sender and found herself on a scavenger hunt. She met a boy along the way (I was thirteen and obsessed with romance), and they ended up in Italy while chasing these letters. Eight years later, I thought about that story while vacationing in Montana and decided to revisit the plot, and there you have it: Mya Lightwood’s story is born. What Flames Can Give Us was the final product of a twelve-year journey. Since then, I’ve written several pieces. Hopefully, they’ll soon be published pieces and not just drafted pieces. But time will tell. As I said before, as long as I’m writing, I’ll be happy, no matter the outcome.

So, that’s that. The start of my writing career, if you will. I hope you enjoy my internal thoughts and short attention span throughout this blog. I’m a registered nurse, so it’s possible that a few healthcare tips and tricks and horror stories might find their way in here. No promises. However, I do promise that I will (try to) keep things short and sweet and interesting. So, here’s to a new beginning!

And go Stars (my favorite hockey team)!