Being a dad has changed a lot about my writing.
Even though I’m in the middle of a YA fantasy Kickstarter, I can’t pretend I’m anything other than a 31-year-old white dude in North Carolina.
But the last two books I’ve written deal a lot with the legacy of being a parent.
I have to face questions like:
What happens when we fail our kids?
How do we earn second chances as parents?
How much damage can one terrible choice inflict?
Every time my two-year-old gives me that mischievous, cheek-splitting, heart-filling grin, I feel the weight.
And I’m thankful I don’t carry it alone.
So when I’m writing a teenage orphan who has to reckon with the choices of her ancestors in a MAJOR way, there’s only one way to infuse her journey with hope.
I make sure she’s not alone either.
My latest novel, Stories That Bleed, deals with fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, legacies and life choices. It’s nail-biting and hopeful and sneakily humorous. It digs into the question of who our family really is.
And it’s raised $2,000 and counting on Kickstarter.
Addison
