The short story: Diligently attempting to up-my-game as a mom, writer, volunteer, family event coordinator, and self-induced multi-tasker.

The long story: K.H. Finder earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a Master’s Degree in Education from Arizona State University, including alumni membership in the Sun Devil Marching Band. She works as an educator, volunteer, and loves to travel. She contributes to www.cranky-writer.com as The Optimistic Crank and works as a copywriter for various online forums. She lives with her husband and three children in Chandler, Arizona.

The longer story: Reading came so easily that I never really gave much thought to how storytellers can impact readers with a single word or phrase. Conversely, I never considered how a single story could vastly impact a reader’s appeal, solely due to content, personal experience or bias, until one day in my late twenties.

Just a few memorable books come to mind from my early reading years: Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, by Judy Blume; To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; and a short story I ready in a 4th grade Junior Great Books series, by Rudyard Kipling, with an emphasis on personification and determination.

Impactful stories from my early adult years include: She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb; My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, and The Pilot’s Wife, by Anita Shreve. These books opened my mind to possibilities in storytelling that I’d never considered and I began questioning if I could create something so extraordinary. I pondered for quite some time, vigorously reading diverse fiction and non-fiction, trying to determine a realistic goal.

To my surprise, I found genres of interest that were brand new to me! A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah and Night, by Elie Wiesel took up permanent residences in my heart, forever reminding me that unimaginable and unfair hardships are true realities in the lives of too many. Historical Fiction also ranked up as I read stories like: The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont; The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne and The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom.

Reading more enticed me to write more. So the journey began at a snail’s pace. I continue to read and write through a fluctuating pattern of warm-ups to full-on sprinting, continuously learning how each step contributes to strength and endurance.