The Beautiful Scars duology was the most challenging thing I’ve ever written. Not because of the time and technical difficulty of writing a novel (which there was plenty of), but because the story and the characters demanded so much of me in the process of getting it finished.
Writing it was difficult for many reasons and I didn’t realize how much I’d needed it until it was ready to put out into the world.
I always end up falling in love with the characters I write, but I’m not sure I will ever write characters who mean more to me than the ones in these two books. I learned a lot about myself and am so thankful that I got to live with them as my constant companions for a little over two years.
I wrote this book because I believe stories have power. Maybe not to fix us, but to sit with us—let us know we aren’t alone as we navigate the painful places and pitfalls we all encounter.
Stories can be a way to bear witness to so many of the things that are hard to live with— pain, fear, trauma, complicated love, all the wounds that never seem to fully close. But, they can also offer healing and hope and a way to see how things might have been. How things could still be.
It’s my wish that by the time you’re finished reading these books you’ve found something you needed or loved as well.
Thank you so much for giving me some of your time and letting me share this story and these characters with you. It means the world to me.
