The image you see above is the front cover of my first edition of my first Kennedy Ryan novel.

I’m sure all authors can attest to this: getting started on my author journey was a rocky road!

I was 21 years old and in my second year of college. At the time, I didn’t yet declare my double major in Music and English. I was more focused on Gen-Eds and trying to figure out my path for my life. I hadn’t taken any writing classes at all. I was writing the first draft of my Kennedy Ryan novel. Without any writing experience or know-how. But there I was, publishing my story with WestBow Press in 2016.

Fast-forward a few years later. Very few sales. Typos in the book. No marketing skills whatsoever. Wondering if I should republish the book.

In the spring of 2021, I met with a friend who was also an author, and she recommended Author Media and the Christian Writers Institute to me. She encouraged me to pull the book from WestBow and republish it. So I did. I rewrote the entire story. I took my online courses. In January of 2023, I republished my second edition of “Kennedy Ryan: A Story of Adjustment and Adventure” on Amazon KDP.

But the seeds of the garden of my author career were planted years before I even went to college. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed writing stories and poems. Even as a little girl. My most favorite genre is fantasy, back then and nowadays. I actually hope to build my author brand in the fantasy genre. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try other genres. My Kennedy Ryan series, after all, is not fantasy. It is young adult mystery and Christian fiction. I also really enjoy science fiction, and I’ve got some science fiction series in my head, just waiting to be released into the world in book form!

I first created the character of Kennedy Ryan when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I was inspired to create Kennedy by a PC game called “Barbie: Explorer.” My two younger sisters and I loved Barbie growing up. The game’s adventure genre, as well as Barbie’s travels through Egypt, made me think of Wild West adventures (due to Egypt and the Wild West both being associated with the desert landscape). My siblings and I, being imaginative kids, made up our own story based on the story of the game; this culminated in the creation of Kennedy Ryan. At that time, my older brother was a hardcore fan of “Indiana Jones”, and he had my sisters and I come up with state names for our characters. I chose “Kennedy Arizona.” This was short-lived; I changed the name to “Kennedy Texas.” Upon actually preparing to write the first draft of my first book at age 21, though, I did away with the state name in order to avoid legal comparisons with “Indiana Jones.” In writing the stories over the years, I had made countless revisions until I came to the story I am at right now. The entire Kennedy Ryan series is as follows:

1. Kennedy Ryan: A Story of Adjustment and Adventure
2. Kennedy Ryan: The Chilling Case of the Chupacabra
3. The Adventures of Kennedy Ryan and Friends (a collection of seven novellas)
4. Kennedy Ryan: Swiftly on the Wings of the Wind

I graduated from Montana State University of Billings in December 2021 with an English BA and a Music BA. I dedicated my first poetry book, “Step Into Creativity”, to my college poetry teacher, Tami K. Haaland.

I look forward to my future in writing fiction and poetry!