The Amazing Twitter Response!

As the engineer of The Writers Voice I am happy and proud to be the first to do a regular blog post! 

For those of you who have been following the team and getting to know them a bit better over the last week and a half thank you. A big shout out from all of us to all of our readers who make our lives so special and wonderful. This blog is for you. We have new amazing guest posts scheduled for the future and so much to share. (Check out the list of future guest authors in the side bar!) I hope you enjoy!

The posts on this blog will be the choice of each individual author and their prerogative so you never know what you might hear about next!

I was talking to a few of my fellow team mates and realizing that while we all are so different we all share one belief. We believe in the power of emotions. We asked everyone the day before yesterday to hop on twitter and share a bit about how books have effected their lives. The responses were so amazing. I got to know more about my fellow team mates and our readers. More than that, I got to know more about the potential that each member of this team has to touch the lives of others so I thought I might share a story with everyone. Some of you who have followed me on my personal blog for a while might know it but I will tell it none the less.

I didn’t like reading when I was younger. Until I was in the 5th grade I would read and I would get through a book so fast that I would get bored, so I wouldn’t read often. I would spend my time drawing, making up stories or studying. I loved text books but put a good fantasy in front of me and good luck getting me to crack the spine. Pretty much your average response from a child who didn’t have much interaction with literature and reading with others (other than the fascination with text books :p ).

Then I got sick. I have always had interesting health problems but that time was worse than normal. I wasn’t allowed to get up, I couldn’t leave the room and I was miserable. What was I supposed to do? So my grandmother took the opportunity to try and get me to read The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. Yeah… DIDN’T work. It is like a family initiation to read it and I still haven’t. So she tried Anthony Trollope, to no avail. Then Pride and Prejudice. Nope. Queen Elizabeth? Finished it too quickly and got bored. So she asked me something I hadn’t been asked before. What do your friends read?

Tamora Pierce. So she got one book and set in on the nightstand. She didn’t ask me to read it or even say much. She just left it there and then went to take care of my brother. My grandmother knows me well. She had finally figured out how to do it! How to get me to love reading. I opened the pages and started reading In the Hand of the Goddess and fell in love with the story. It was like magic. A world opened before my eyes and I met a girl I could look up to and understand even though she was the opposite of me. Her finding that book and setting it down next to me may seem like a small action but it changed everything for me.
Naturally, it went on from there and three days later I had read most of the series! A few months later I was out of bed and slowly picking my way through the entire Young Adult library shelves. It gave me strength, reading a novel with a female lead who was willing to face anything for what she believed in. Once I realized there were so many other novels out there with lead characters I could look up to and learn from it was harder to find me without a book than with one.

Every time from that point on I felt like giving up I would tell myself that one day I could help someone the way I had been helped. I could tell someone a story that would give them strength and help them in their life. The night before last reawakened that hope in me so thank you. Thank you to everyone who participated, tweeted, commented, e-mailed and told us your story. Our books may entertain you but you are our inspiration.

 A giant fan of all readers,