As a landlocked Midwesterner, I love to travel. Sunflowers and cornfields have a humble charm, but the world is painted in colors beyond the golden hues of Kansas, and I plan to experience every single shade.

One of my favorite periods of life was when I studied abroad in London and the idea of writing a book first sparked my interest. I was fortunate to take an author’s course where each week we read a published novel then sat down for a roundtable discussion with the author. They exposed everything from their writing process to the emotional, draining experience of killing off a character they loved. It was complicated, messy, and yet, enchanting.

From that point on, when I wasn’t traveling by planes or trains, I was traveling by pen.