Article: If you had asked me...

If you had asked me years ago what I was going to be when I grew up, I probably would have said something like: "I don't know what I'm going to do for real, but writing is a given." It has not been until recent years, however, that writing became more than a given; it is now the "real" thing that has grabbed my time, energy and focus. Outside of parenting, no other job or calling has captured my heart more. What and why I write are at the intersection of a lot of prayer, seeking, listening, living, and a few other factors, including what I have read.

A natural reader from childhood, the power and intrigue of writing caught my attention early as I entered the adventurous worlds of Laura Ingalls Wilder and C.S. Lewis from my Northeast Baltimore City row home. Then Beverly Cleary gave voice to my preteen thoughts and longings until a friend in high school introduced me to the suspense offered by Mary Higgins Clark — page-turning, quick reads, which, I must admit, have influenced the pace I like in stories.

It was also during my early years that the poetry of Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni affirmed my cultural identity. And then Words by Heart by Ouida Sebestyen and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor brought a depth of history, strength, and flashes of faith to my view of what was possible through story-telling. In James Baldwin ("Sonny's Blues" is one of my favorite short stories), I saw glimpses of the rhythm, fervor, and soul found in the church he could not escape writing about, a church I knew firsthand. Through Sunday services, Sunday school, group and personal Bible study, the Word of God and His presence have been as much a part of my life — and as vital — as breathing.

And then came the culminating moment — Jubilee by Margaret Walker — when beauty and sense and everything else found its way into my reading world and ultimately my writer's eye. I saw so much in Ms. Walker's world, and so much became possible in mine.

There are many books I could site that have influenced both my reading and writing, especially now with the advent of a definitive class of novels termed "African-American Christian Fiction." I find myself snuggling comfortably under this growing genre, which is an unfinished, continuous quilt — each patch, each book, as varied in content and design as the next. As a reader, I will continue to explore other worlds, different genres That is necessary. As a writer, I plan on staying under that quilt of Christian Fiction for as long as God keeps me wrapped in it. I'm there not out of duty, imitation, or exclusion, but because of what I've felt, what I've known, who I am, Who I know. And prayerfully, whatever words are given to me to write will touch people of other races, various backgrounds, and differing faiths, and we'll all grow up together in Christ and grow closer to each other.