Shadows

   When I was growing up, I thought the only way I could express myself was through painting, drawing or poetry. It blinded me from using writing fiction as another way to tell you about my dreams, fears and ambitions.

  

   Nightmares turn into monsters. Sunny days transform into misty grey sunsets. Traumas turn into stories with vampires, werewolves and ghosts. It's therapeutic and inspiring. Ideas run through my head 24/7 100 miles an hour. It keeps me awake, it inspires me and it haunts me. I love every bit of it.

   Authors who made me look at my shadows are Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, C. S. Lewis and JK Rowling. There are many authors out there that have written stories that have shaken me to the core. When I look at my shadows, they disappear like smoke in a mirror.

   Some days it's hard to look at my shadows. Some days it's too difficult to look at the smoke in the mirror, to turn the light on or even to open my eyes to the possibility that these shadows might not be real. Some days they are so real that they turn into that monster that hurt me when I was 9, or that bigger monster that hurt even more when I was 14 till I was 16. Sometimes that monster goes back into time becoming something closer and more related to me that it's hard to think that he ever did what he did to me. But when I write, I can do whatever I can do to those monsters, and that's the best feeling in the world.

  

   I have no regrets in becoming a fantasy writer. I know that some people think that fiction does not bring value to the world. They are so mistaken. Fiction has a big role.

Here's a link to what Neil Gaiman says about fiction: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/24/neil-gaiman-face-facts-need-fiction