Ah, Taylor Swift. I must admit, I had my doubts about her. But after listening, I've come around. Nate still cringes at the fact that I now enjoy country music. But I digress...

If you know me at least marginally well, you know that I like to write. My dream has always been to be published someday. Now, I'm pretty confident that becoming a published author will never happen for me, and I'm just fine with that; but I am taking a leap and doing something with my writing that I've never done before. I'm going to let you—whoever is reading this blog—take a look at what I'm writing. My husband is in the process of making an amazing website on which I will “publish” what I write. I'll post my books chapter by chapter, in the hopes of getting some feedback that may help me as I continue to develop the series. Now, if you're interested in knowing a little more about this venture of mine, I imagine you have a few questions:

1) For what audience is the series written?

I'm just going to go ahead and admit that my series is fluff. What do I mean by fluff? Being a literature teacher, I am constantly surrounded by classical and award-winning literature. I certainly enjoy these types of books; but when it's raining outside and I have time to myself, I'll cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and a book that has a good story, but requires very little thinking. So by “fluff,” I just mean that my series will not be anything tremendously intellectually stimulating. When writing, I basically have someone like myself in mind—someone whose life is busy, and who enjoys occasionally escaping into someone else's world for a while.

2) What is the series about?

God has blessed me with an interesting life. I've had so many wonderful experiences, and being a decent storyteller, I enjoy sharing them. As a result, my series is loosely based on my own life (my younger life, that is). It's fact-meets-fiction. The main character is a young woman in her late teens (into her early twenties by the end of the series) who is simply trying to figure out who she is and what God wants her to be in this world. I'll admit up front...she's modeled after me. I think she's a much better person than I am, but she's technically fictional, so that's okay.  And, following the title of this post, one of the other main characters is modeled after my husband, making this a bit of a love story.  A pretty convoluted love story (just ask anyone who knows us), but a love story nonetheless.

3) What is the meaning behind the title, The Soundtrack Series?

My love of literature and writing is paralleled by my love of music. When I was in college, I was known for my music collection, and my roommate would always ask me what I would put on a soundtrack of my life. I thought about that for a while. For me, music compliments life. If I was going to make a soundtrack for my life, it would have to be a series of albums that each represented a different time period. So, inspired by my love of music (and my former college roommate), I decided to write a series of novels based on music that would complement the storyline of a life, and music that would complement that life's events and cast of characters. That's the basis of The Soundtrack Series.