From Book Lover to Authoress

For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading. While some kids were out playing in the mud, climbing trees, playing video games, or watching tv, you were most likely to find me somewhere lost in a book. I started with horse books, American Girl, Sisters in Time, Nancy Drew, and yes, sometimes even Hardy Boys. I loved reading about horses, mysteries, pioneers, knights, you name it. I loved a good story. I remember reading a book one morning at the breakfast table when I was around nine. My mom practically had to rip the book out of my hands. Well, she did not actually rip it out of my hands. 😊

Of course I loved reading the Bible as well. My parents encouraged us to start reading the Bible for ourselves at a young age. I set out to read my whole Bible, and I did, though I cannot remember how long it took the first time. Next I decided to read the whole Bible, cover to cover, in one year. I was so excited to finally reach that goal, and I did so before I was ten. I just loved reading. 

There is a verse in the Bible that says that of the making of many books there is no end. However, for book lovers like me, it is exciting to think that there are so many books I could read. I love the saying, "So many books, so little time." I believed the saying, "Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be." Though the books I could read did seem to be limitless, I began to find that not every book is worth reading or healthy to the reader. 

My family has always had certain standards in our home - we do not drink, smoke, cuss, or even believe in saving the first kiss for the wedding. We knew these standards, and we followed them faithfully. However, when I was around 14, this standard became something more. We began to ask ourselves why we watched and read about the things we did not do in our home. Besides cussing, something we have never allowed in our movies and books, we did read and watch things with some drinking and kissing before marriage. Our family came to a decision: we decided to take away movies and books that promoted these things. Before I knew it, we started cleaning out our book case and movie collection. The wide window of possibilities in books started to shrink. I would read a book, see it had kissing, and get rid of it. This one promoted drinking, so I decided to get rid of it. It is not like it meant that there were no books left for me to read, it just meant that we had to use wisdom and weed out the wrong influences. The Lord did provide clean, wholesome books for us to enjoy. Still, I started to get frustrated. I was tired of having to throw away a book when I had just got to the exciting part. 

One day, Josh, Brenna, and I decided to start writing our own books. Then we could be sure these stories would have no drinking, cussing, or kissing before marriage. Josh and Brenna started writing first. Josh had a really good western he was writing that had some good funny parts in it. Brenna started writing about a girl named Brenn Cole who would later join a cattle drive. (Can you tell that we loved Westerns? :) ) We had been watching a ton of the old western, Rawhide, and Brenna was going to base some of her characters off of the people in the show. Soon I joined them and decided to write on Brenn Cole's sister, Elisabeth. I wanted to imagine what it would be like for me to live in the 1800s. Before I knew it, I was the only one left writing books. It was and has been a slow process, but I really started to enjoy it. I had the dream of writing clean books for others to enjoy, and like you may think, mine would not promote drinking, cussing, or kissing. I had received a purity ring when I was 14, so I decided to write a story about a girl who kept herself pure. I titled my series, "The Ring Series." Brenna stopped writing hers, but I liked the route she had been going with hers, so I decided to take over. My book, "The Purity Ring," would be book one, and Brenna's book which I later titled "The Ring of the Prodigal" would be book two. 

I started reading books on writing. I also made a Pinterest board on being an authoress. I was going to write a book sooner or later, though it is proving to be later. The first Christmas after we left the mission field, my parents bought me a beautiful desk. I soon came up with a special ritual I would start doing while I wrote. I would first pull out my Reese's bowl with Reese's in it, my writing notebooks, and a soda. Then I would light a candle and turn on a small table fountain that Josh gave me so I could have nice background noise. It was the perfect writing atmosphere. I even did that ritual today as I was writing. Now, though, I put on nature sounds on Youtube. Another thing I do now is listen to music. I love creating playlists with different holidays and themes. I also came up with the idea of creating playlists for each of my books. The candle I have been lighting lately is called Lavender Lemonade. It smells so good!

I have a total of three books I have been working on, and an idea readywhen I complete the first three.

My Grandma has been an encouragement to me from the start. When I started writing the first book, she took me out for Mexican and read to her what I had written. Like a loving grandmother, she said it was really good. We shall see... I remember sitting at the table with her when the waitress came up to our table. Grandma proudly told her, "My granddaughter is going to be an authoress." I am so thankful for her encouragement. After our first lunch at the mexican restaurant, we said that next time we would just get cheese dip, soda, and fried ice cream. We have been to that restaurant at least three times to read my books. Grandma, I can't wait until next time. Hopefully I will be more close to finishing this time. :)

Now my dream is to write to be a blessing to other young ladies. I have a desire to encourage them in the Lord through my books. I know not everyone out there loves to read as much as I do, but I hope I can be a blessing to someone.

Until next time...

Elisabeth Gimenez

Future authoress...

I hope 😊