Hi. The little girl with the big cheesy grin pictured above... that's me. I was about 5 or 6 and never dreamed I'd be living the life of an author! If pressed, I'd attribute being a writer to three things. The first two are daydreaming and reading.

My life began in the projects of Houston, Texas. As a child I loved to daydream; in fact it's still one of my favorite past times even as an adult. I'm sure many of you are daydreamers as well and realize how much trouble you can get into for indulging in this practice at the wrong time. Despite this drawback, I stole away to be by myself to daydream as often as I could.

I never shared my dreams with anybody until I had to resort to telling my little sister bedtime stories. I shared a bed with her and she refused to be quiet and keep still so I could daydream in peace. So I started sharing my stories with her so we could both enjoy them. I didn't know it at the time but at such an early age, I was honing my storytelling skills on her.

Another one of my favorite past times was reading. Books allowed me to travel past the bounds imposed on me by my circumstances. They took me away from my insecure, sometimes frightening but mostly monotonous poverty existence. Stories brought to my awareness a bigger world beyond my limited surroundings and transported me to places I would eventually live or visit and others I can still only dream about. Initially, books represented mental escape but eventually they led to my physical escape.

Daydreaming and reading are the first two reasons why I'm a writer. The third is my daughter. After having her, I was inspired to pursue my dreams as an example for her to live her best life. As a teen, she loves fantasy stories but couldn't find one with a lead character that reflected her; an African American teen girl. This inspired me to write Asleep, a fantasy story about a teen girl named Adisa who doesn't know her boyfriend can fly. Adisa soon discovers a secret world of superbeings and even more amazing she learns she's directly connected to this mysterious world.

I wrote this story for my daughter but to my surprise, many other readers connected with the story and contacted me to tell me so. I started off daydreaming just to entertain myself and all these years later it resulted in this fantasy story. Who would've ever thought the little girl with the cheesy grin would write stories that entertain so many others as well?

I hope my story inspires you to pursue your dreams. And if it does, I hope you contact me and tell me all about it.

Wendy Raven McNair