Advice writers receive: Write what you know.

I know darkness. I grew up in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Glendale, Arizona. Knowing the uglier sides of life there weren’t a lot of options available to me. At least, that’s what the world would have me believe. I could’ve succumbed to the hopelessness and despair that come with having the kind of childhood and adolescence better suited for a Lifetime Channel movie or a cautionary tale. Become a statistic. Or I could allow my past to fuel my creativity.

I devoured anything I could read as an escape. Writing became my calm in the storm. My constant. I published my first book at ten years old. Through college where I studied Social Work, trying to effect change from within the system—I wrote. Modeled a bit. Sang. Became an on-air radio personality. Acted. And still, I wrote. Poetry. Screenplays. Novels. Even placed in the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival. All roads lead back to writing. Now, I write dark. Dark paranormal romance. Dark urban fantasy. Psychological and supernatural thrillers. And dark contemporary romance under the pseudonym Wilt Rhys. Because the one thing life’s taught me, everything done in the dark comes to the light.