Changing Your Universe

I'd like to welcome Kinley Baker, fellow Crescent Moon Press author, to Changing Your Universe. 

We're all the sum total of our life experiences, but there are moments when someone or something affects us, possibly even influences the direction our lives will take. Here is one of those stories.

Everyone Needs a Friend by Kinley Baker

I love friends who turn into more than friends in romance stories, probably because it reminds me of my own experience with my husband. He’s really one of the people who changed the direction of my life, and it all started with an unlikely friendship.

During my younger years, I was very conflicted. I started figure skating at age three, and started competing around age five. By the time I was a teenager, I was practicing hours a day, and doing all sorts of off-ice training, as well. Between classes, skating, and my shyness, I wasn’t very close to anyone. When I met my husband at seventeen, he wasn’t my biggest fan. I was very lost and really struggling to figure out who I was.

I got mono and ended up staying home from school for several weeks. We ended up talking online a lot and started a friendship. I wasn’t quite as annoying as he thought I was. He wasn’t quite as much of a jerk as I had thought. And most importantly, at the time, we both could have really used a friend.

We didn’t start dating until college, but those initial years taught me a lot about myself, and he was there for me during the most challenging time in my life. He proved he would stick, no matter what happened.

Eventually, I had to admit to myself that I was never going to the Olympics as a figure skater. Luckily, I found something I loved even more in college: writing. I don’t think my husband understood how important writing romance novels was to me, until I started reading like crazy and writing stories. But he’s supported me for the last four years, as I got serious about seeking publication. I’ve been trying to navigate the publishing jungle ever since.

My husband taught me a lot about friendship and caring for other people. His family taught me about love and acceptance. I’m definitely lucky he came into my life, and didn’t give up. Looking back at how lost I was makes me realize how lucky I am now to have a direction. Everything I went through and we went through together, took me here to writing romance stories set in fantasy realms, and it all feels just right.

I think in my stories, the couples go through a lot. In Denied, Tabitha and Caleb face numerous challenges, and they go through a lot together. I think part of that stems from my own experiences, and finally believing that someone will stay for the first time, and learning to trust that.

I hope you’ll relate to Tabitha’s journey as she fights for the right to be the first female guard in her kingdom, and Caleb, who wants to protect her after losing the women and children of his home realm, and his homeland. They’re both struggling to find their place, and I definitely relate to their journey.