The Write Stuff with... R.L. Walker

Today it's my pleasure to be handing the reins of the blog over to author R.L. Walker, welcome Roxanne.

The saying, “write what you know” by Mark Twain has been my accidental philosophy. My writing inspiration has always come from my life experiences and wanting to share those experiences with others. I think that comes from being a teacher and wanting to still teach even through my writing. Teaching is why I even started to share and publish my writing as I wanted to share my writing journey with my students to help them with their own journey. Many of them loved seeing how I brainstormed, that I did in fact write, and that even as a teacher I made mistakes and had to edit. There are even cases where I missed my own mistakes as an English teacher. Opps! While sharing my writing I decided that I wanted to share my experiences to teach others about some of my unique life.

My first book, The Disappearing Act, and it’s sequel, Crimival, were inspired by childhood growing up in the carnival. While I was not a crime solving telepath like Zoe, my main character, I did experience some unique things that I wanted to share with my students, other children, and even adults. As a kid I always felt looked down upon as a carnie and even as an adult people would ask the craziest questions about growing up in the carnival such as “Have you ever lived in a house before?” Yes, I did live in a house and I went to school like normal kids. My family owned food concessions and I was the 3rd generation of a small locally owned family business. However, while the food truck industry has gained some fame as of late, it was still not seen as a local business which we all love to support. So I wrote about how I felt as a teen being discriminated against and judged as stupid when I was a straight A all honors student who also helped run a business. I also wanted to share how the carnival was like a family full of it’s good stories and also drama like any family. There were so many fun stories to share about the crazy events on the road like flat tires in the middle of nowhere, trying to move fairs in the middle of a flood, and more. I also wanted to share how much work running a small business especially a food concession really is as many view it as their ‘retirement gig’. 

My second book, Kai’s Secret, was inspired by my time spent on an archaeology dig site in college. I always thought it was very Indiana Jones like and thought it would be fun to write about the science of archaeology to inspire kids to learn history. 

I am continuing this with my current writing inspiration which is a children’s picture book on gardening. When we decided to start our family, I knew that I wanted to create a book for them when they were little. So I thought on the things that I shared with my parents and grandparents as a kid that I wanted to share with my children. Thus, I came up with the idea of a sort of how to gardening book that stars my twins (now 4 months old) as toddlers who plant a garden with the help of the Grandma and parents of course. I wanted to find a way to pass this experience on to my children through a hopefully shared love of reading and perhaps inspire others to share in the joy of gardening. In particular, share in the joy of growing memories with their children while growing their own food and learning to cook with it. My book, Growing Memories, will be out soon and starts with growing strawberries and takes you through harvest and our family strawberry jam recipe. My hopes are my writing inspirations inspire others to do things whether it be understanding a business, visiting a historic site, or learning to garden with family. 

Feel free to follow my adventures in life and writing on: 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RL-Walker 
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/r.l.walker88author

All book titles in bold are Amazon UK Affiliate links which will earn me a few pence if anyone clicks through and makes a purchase - any money earned will go towards buying books or gifts for giveaways.