Tracie Hicks

Sitting here at my window looking up at the stars, how they sparkle in the night sky like diamonds. It makes one reflect on their life.

Do I have regrets? Yes, but those regrets one must learn from, in which I did. Who would have known that the signs were there when I was a child, just to ignore them? Maybe, I was just not ready yet.

Ever since I can remember I have daydreamed. It is easy, as a kid, to disguise such things. It is cute when you see a child pretending or making up stories, as for an adult, it is a different. To see a grown person do so, they can be made fun of, unless they can make money from it. Just ask all those Hollywood stars or the authors in the bookstores.

I would daydream my stories, re-writing what I saw in the movies or television in my head. I would sit and watch the Dukes of Hazzard, I was an additional character, a very young cousin. Battlestar Galactica, I was Starbuck’s adopted daughter from the planet Leo. The movie, Masters of the Universe, I was He-man’s daughter. I was also Fox Mulder’s of the X-Files younger sister, and David’s little sister in The Lost Boys.

I did not write any of these stories down, they stayed in my head. I was too busy being a kid. Little did I know, those daydreams were a sign, a sign I should have read. To this day, I still daydream my stories out. I have been Merlin’s daughter, Kakashi’s wife in Naruto. I have even crossed Merlin with the Marvel Universe. I was James Potter’s little sister in Harry Potter, among other daydream stories.

I guess fate has intervened in my life. Now with medical problems causing me to not work like I once did, I was forced to decide what direction my life would take. That is when it hit me, like a baseball to the head. Why not learn to write my daydreams out and create stories of my own I returned to school, online and got my Associates degree in Communication. I wanted more, decided to get my Bachelor’s degree in Fiction and Screenwriting. I went on for a Master’s degree in Fiction Writing. After that I got my Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing with a certificate in Professional Writing.

I have a short story and a poem in The Coffee House Writers Anthologies, and my short story collection, Spooky’s Dreams & Nightmares was released back in May.

Life does give people second chances. This is my second chance, to go from daydreamer to author.