Books

From the first time that I started reading and then transitioned from picture books to chapter books, I was hooked. Over the next thirty-plus years, I read all the books I could like to read, memoirs, like Mary Tyler Moore’s After All, Dick Van Dyke’s My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir, and Robyn Davidson’s Tracks.

However, I love reading fiction. It helps with stirring up imagination. My classic favorites are Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Then, in the 2010s, Ellen Sussman’s A Wedding in Provence was what sparked my interest in to write a book.

            I let my imagination take its course, and it didn’t take long before chapters were written and the book was soon published. Below is an excerpt from my novella, Finding Happiness, that I wrote under my pen name, Katelyn Leng.

 “…Kelsey took one of the vacated seats. Seeing the gaze her sister had, Kelsey asked, “What’re you thinking about, sissy?”

Geneva looked at her sister and replied, “Nothing much. Just how thankful I am and how I’m looking forward to starting high school.”

Kelsey remarked, “Don’t worry, you’ll do great.” 

Following a brief silence, Kelsey continued, “You know that if you run into trouble, you can come to me, right?”

Geneva leaned over and hugged her sister, whispering, “Yes, I know. Thanks, Kels.”

After a few more minutes, they got up and headed to get ready for dinner.

What Geneva didn’t know was that when she began high school, she would meet someone who knew the identity of her birth mother.”

            Books are the reason I read, as they inspire me to write stories and let my imagination roam.