For everyone who has shown me love this week...

For everyone who has shown me love this week, I wish I could do something for you in return. This little book of mine is a very long love letter, written to so many people that I truly love, even though I might not know how to say it sometimes.

My central character, Myo, spends much of her time on the outside looking in. This is something I have been doing most of my life. Watching others, caring about them, but not knowing how to actually participate in life. So instead, I wrote stories that only my husband, children, and a few close friends have read.

This week it feels like I have come out of the shadows of the forest and walked into the village. I have felt every bit as frightened at the prospect of doing this as my character was in my book. Just as she used her powers to veil herself in a different identity, I have tried to do things that made me look different from how I felt on the inside. Taking a pile of Advanced Placement classes in High School, getting perfect grades, trying to achieve any and every academic milestone that I could was my way of feeling safe in the world. Don't get me wrong, I love learning, but the pressure I put on myself to be perfect was slowly crushing me. Still, I continued to hide behind achievements while feeling secretly like an imposter.

This book was about me doing what I wanted without hiding who I really am. I think it went well for a few reasons. I was able to tell my mother how much I miss her, and how sorry I was for not valuing her enough while she was still with me. Without realizing it, I was able to tell a story about my father and how much I admired him. Just as I experienced the heartache of slowly losing him to a prolonged battle with Parkinsons, one of my characters had to watch his father lose his hold on reality. I was able to talk about the heartbreak I felt and to share it with someone that, though fictional, had become very real to me.

As my children read my book, they were delighted to see their strengths and personality quirks embedded in the many characters that share space in the more than 250,000 words that comprise this story. They have come to better understand how much I love them, how deep my commitment to their safety and growth really is.

Then there is my husband, my forever soul mate. Without him, there could not have been an Ero. The one who keeps a clear head when everything is going south, the one who stands behind Myo no matter how daunting her mission in life seems to be. He's always planning, standing up and making things work when it seems like failure is imminent. He's my miracle, just like the one that Myo needed.

So to my friends and family, if you're wondering what this has to do with you, I'll tell you in one succinct word, everything. If you want more details, they are in every page of The Wood and the Labyrinth. This is a high fantasy world of my own making, which basically means a complex narrative full of diverse characters and cultures. My story is about family and about how the loss of the name that connects you to them can leave you bereft of purpose and lost in the infinite sea of the world's chaos. My story is about finding friendship and alliances in unexpected places. These things are real, even if my story isn't. Thank you for cheering for me and giving me a chance to tell you in my own way how much I care about you by writing this story. I hope you can find yourself in the pages of my book, because you are most certainly there.

With all the love that grew this book, I'm hoping that it can continue to grow and take on meaning for anyone who takes the time to look for it. I'm cheering for everyone to step out of the shadows and find that it is, in fact, okay to just be you.