I had writers block for 6 years. It was 2003, I was 22 years old, 8 months pregnant with my son, Cole, and I was 228 pages into my first draft of a book that I poured my heart and soul into. My computer started giving me troubles and my husband suggested taking our computer in to be looked at. So I called down the computer store where we had purchased it from and asked about a million questions. The main one being: “Do I need to backup everything?” They assured me that they were only going to diagnose the issue and not do anything to the computer, so I didn’t need to spend time backing things up. So, being the young and naive, technology-challenged girl that I was back then, I didn’t backup anything- not even my novel- and merrily took it down the store.

Three days later I got a call. While diagnosing the issue, my computer crashed. Everything was lost. Everything. My novel. My heart. My blood. My sweat. My tears. My thoughts. My dreams. Gone.

I was devastated.

Too emotionally steam-rolled to even think of rewriting what was lost, instead I refused to even look at my computer for several weeks- it had become my enemy, a traitor. Life got crazy, we welcomed our son into the world and my life as a mommy and wife took center stage. Writing was the furthest thing from my mind and I focused all of my creative energy into my photography- another passion of mine. I have told my photography story many times, that’s a different blog on a different day. As things developed and my career took off as a photographer, my desire to write began to resurface, time and time again. But I forced the idea out of my mind, fearful of investing the time, energy and love into writing again.

Books like The Notebook, Pride & Prejudice, Jemima J, Animal Husbandry and Getting Over It, caused a stirring in my soul. All my life I had told people I would one day be a writer. Holding the work of other’s in my hands made me so envious. I wanted that. My words in print. Tangible proof that my love for writing was not for nothing. But I had nowhere to start. I had the desire, but not the drive. All I had was faceless characters with no story to tell. So what was the point of even trying to write? I knew if I tried to force it, I would never finish it.

And then I was introduced to Bella and Edward.

It wasn’t the vampire/human thing that lured me in. It wasn’t Bella’s awkwardness or Edward’s turn-of-the-century morals. It definitely wasn’t the wolves, either. It was the young love. Following your heart. Marrying the man you love at a young age, despite what people might think. You see, I met my husband when I was only 5. We started dating when I was 15. At 18 I became his wife. And we’ve been happily married now for over 14 years.

I believe in young love. That became the driving force in my passion to write again. I thank Stephenie Meyer for helping me realize what makes me tick when it comes to writing. Bella & Edward’s love inspires me. And no, our novel is not the retelling of their story- it’s not supernatural, there is no blood sucking, no shape shifting, no sparkling in the sun. It’s a story about a boy and a girl who face life’s obstacles to be together. One offers passion, the other offers peace. My hope is that one day, Avery & Lucas’ love will inspire someone else to put pen to paper, just as Bella & Edward did for me.