Reading has always been a passion of mine, second only to investigating and learning new things. When my kids were in elementary school, I started reading YA novels as a way to keep up with what they were reading. Before long, I realized I wasn’t doing it just for them. I genuinely loved the genre.

Coming-of-age stories, first love, first kisses without having to worry about stumbling into anything too risqué. I found myself getting lost in well-crafted fictional worlds and deeply attached to the characters who lived in them.

But after a while, I started to notice a pattern.

In many series, authors seemed to force bad decisions onto their characters simply to prolong the story. Over and over, I found myself thinking, No real person would actually make that choice. Often these choices revolved around romance because apparently no one is allowed to stay in love with the same person for more than one book. Love triangles would appear out of nowhere, or characters would suddenly fall out of love for reasons that only made sense in the name of manufactured drama.

It became frustrating enough that I decided I wanted to write my own worlds with characters who make believable and emotionally grounded decisions, not choices designed purely to stretch a series.

I write stories where even when characters make good decisions, there are still obstacles to overcome. Internal demons to face. External dragons to slay. Conflict that grows naturally out of who the characters are and the worlds they inhabit.

Another trend that bothered me was the way beloved characters so often had to die in order to “save the world.” Sometimes three books in. Sometimes five. After spending so much time living with these characters and rooting for them, their story would end in ultimate sacrifice, as if that were the only meaningful resolution.

I wanted something different.

In my worlds, problems don’t require someone’s death as the final solution. I believe it’s possible to save the world and survive it. To fight hard, grow, change, and still get to live with the choices you’ve made.

That’s why I write: to tell stories with high stakes, real emotion, and big ideas without punishing readers for caring about the characters.