With the release of On My Way Home not terribly far away, (I will announce once its official) I realized that asking people to buy and read my book is a big request. And of course I have hit the big time with my 631 Facebook fans (
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allie-Walker/1412244885656335), but I haven't really revealed too much about myself. My fans are my friends and family, people I have most likely met through someone else, and there are those rare few who I don't know at all which is very exciting.
I must warn you before you go any further it is a strange thing to write about yourself, and if it stinks you should all know my best friend, Mandee, put me up to it.
For starters I am in my later twenties, I am happily married, and I own a husky and a Kia. (Sound pretty cool so far right?!) I have been writing ever since I could construct a sentence. Now it was my own delusion to write books for living right after I got over the fact that being a famous actress wasn't in the cards for me. I have always written in a journal as away to cope with whatever girl emotions I was experiencing at the time, and like the next gal they are always in overdrive.
My whole life I have been spouting out this ridiculous idea stating that I am going to do something incredible with my life, and that was met with its fair share of eye rolls. In fact my grandfather and grandmother said to me at the age of twelve, "Alisha, you aren't going to do anything but flip burgers and be knocked up by sixteen." There were a few other choice words that aren't worth mentioning, but that is what I grew up with. People never believing in me, always pushing me down, always telling me what I couldn't do. I am pretty sure that if bullying was the big deal like it is today back then I would have been on the news for my triumphs, but it's character building and I am stronger because of it. I had it rough, never easy, but always I said that it could be worse.
While growing up I witnessed the miracle of my mother raising three children on a fast food salary. I helped out when I was old enough to get a job, but until then I'm not really sure how she managed. She taught me a lot about life, and how you have to make your own way, and that lesson has been invaluable. Speaking of my mother she is a big reason that On My Way Home even exists.
On My Way Home began on one of the darkest weeks of my life. I had been thrown devastating news twice that week, and the cherry topper was that someone at a camp for kids with developmental disabilities stole $500.00 from me. I spent my whole life keeping it together, pushing forward, moving on, but that week I had lost the strength. I had to leave work early and I went home and cried. My boyfriend who is now my husband recommended I go talk to a counselor, and I knew it was that or a nervous breakdown. The therapist talked to me about my mom and her health and the other aspects of my life of things I had pushed to the side. She brought it all back to the surface, and she asked me what I did for myself? I thought for a moment not really able to think of anything, and then I said, I write. She instructed me to write it all down. I went home that night, and I wrote like I never had before, and the first three chapters of On My Way Home was born.
Now that was only beginning. I didn't write anything else for On My Way Home for a few years, but the characters never strayed far from my mind. I was working at a printing company, and I had gotten a phone call from the most annoying person in the world, like this girl was probably related to Gilbert Godfrey. Something clicked inside, and told me that I did not want to be answering phones or processing payroll for my entire life. It made me wonder what happened to that girl who said she was going to do something with her life? I went home and I thought all night. I thought about going back to school, I thought about what else I was qualified for, and then I thought about writing. I had always been good at it, and I always enjoyed it. That night I went to sleep, and in one of the most vivid dreams of my life I saw, Clare, Gabriella, Gemma, Giuliana, Jason, and Austin (main characters in On My Way Home). The next day I started writing all through work barely stopping to eat lunch or dinner, and I have barely put my pen down since.
That's a little bit of my story. If there is any questions that anyone has for me comment below, and I will do my best to answer them.
Allie Walker
