Writing from the heart

I read this quote today and liked it so much I wanted to put it on my blog -

"If a book comes from the heart, it will continue to reach other hearts"

Thomas Carlyle

I began writing "Bree McCready and the Half-Heart Locket" during a particularly challenging time in my life. I had toyed with the basic concept for a children's novel for some time before that and I could see clearly in my mind all the characters and their individual personalities and nuances. I had just never managed to get around to seriously putting anything down on paper. Writing had always been a dream for me but one which had gone on hold so many times for so many different reasons - lack of time, want for motivation, fear of failure. My personal crisis seemed to crack open something that had been buried deep inside and suddenly the idea of writing just felt like the right thing to do. It offered me a way of escaping an extremely difficult period in my life, a chance to release negative and destructive emotions, whilst offering me some much needed hope for a new beginning. It was as though with every word I wrote I could feel the darkness lifting. Certain features of the story reflect my own emotions at the point that I wrote them and in many ways I wore my heart on my sleeve throughout the writing of my novel. I really hope that this shines through to everyone who reads it and that ultimately they will see that every word came from the heart.