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Nataliya Maize
I’m a stay at home mother of two, residing in Moreno Valley, California. At the moment I’m working on the first book of what I hope to become a series called “The Gatekeeper Chronicles”. The title is still up in the air.
I was born in the OC, Westminster, California in ‘82. Where my beginnings originated, my first inspirations to become a fictional writer as a young child, was after attending a school assemble at Mabel Carver Elementary, in Stanton, California. I was introduced to a children’s performance company, every year I strived to write a short story that would be preformed by their yearly visits. Two years later in 3rd grade I achieved my childhood goal, and I wrote a short story that was personally selected and performed on stage by the company during the next year’s assembly, I was so excited! But when I think about the story I wrote… I still to this day can’t help but laugh because it just so silly.
I was later awarded for for my play write, and from that point on continued writing whenever given the chance. Through the years I had gotten several compliments from instructors, encouraging me to continue writing.
In ‘93 my family moved to Menifee, California. We had no choice, my mother was suffering from severe asthma problems and she needed the dry climate, doctor’s orders. I was so depressed having to leave my old friends in Orange County behind, and starting over as the new girl in school, but at the same time I remember being afraid of losing my mom because she was in the hospital for about a month.
By the time I attended high school, Paloma Valley to be exact, I started preparing for college. I wanted to go into Journalism, so eventually I did what I could to get into the school newspaper committee in my junior year. But, my counselor wouldn’t let me because the journalism class was considered an advanced class, and I was in English with a big, fat, red “F”. I didn’t let that stop me, there was a reason I had an “F” in English… I HATED IT WITH THE PASSION!
So I went around him, and spoke to a “family friend”, Major Gathar. An ex-marine, who had spent the previous year chasing my brother Joshua (“James” from my book) around town (Literally!), Thanks BRO! Major Gathar was our Vice Principal, and this year he had made a promise to keep an “eye” on me. But Josh was always a trouble maker, and I was more of the quite one, plus Major knew how much I loved to write, after going over my records, he couldn’t believe I had a “F” in English, but then he realized my schedule had an “A” in Shakespeare, another advanced English class I took as an elective. So he dropped my old English class, and gave me the last open spot in Journalism.
After two weeks in that class I had the highest grade, nerd… I know, but I loved writing and getting my point across, luckily I got comments from other students saying they actually started reading the school paper again! And I was half expecting them to throw bricks at me LOL! That year I also signed up with the local TV News Station as a reporter for Riverside County, “R.C.N. TV News” directed by Michael Perry, and went into modeling (some type of self esteem thing my parents encouraged). It was shocking to see myself on TV, reporting local news, in fact, it was embarrassing I couldn’t watch it all. I just remember the next day the library lady saying “Hey I know you, your that girl on the news station! (Bright red face… omg, I wanted to die.)
Still… I longed to become a fictional author one day, so I continued writing through poetry. In 2000 I was published in two books at the age of seventeen (one goal accomplished! sweet!) it was for a poem I wrote called “Freed”. It was published in “The Live Poets Society of NJ – American High School Poets Regional Winners 2000″; and also in “From the Mountain Top” published in the summer of 2000.
After high school I attended some creative writing courses at the community college, Mt. San Jacinto, at least it wasn’t English. That’s where I received my first bit of inspiration to write Chapter One – Midnight Calling, and the introductory Prelude to my current writings of “The Gatekeeper Chronicles”.
Originally the story came about when I was asked to write of a descriptive scene for the course. My muse, an old illustration I did after moving from Orange County, and a poem I wrote called “He Craves Another”. Eventually the piece developed into more, when several of my class mates handed me copies of my paper back with written notes of compliments, and words of encouragement on the side. I couldn’t believe it! They really liked it?
Unfortunately, my fiance at the time was in the same class with me, and his attitude towards me changed a bit afterwords. When we got home I just remember him saying “Don’t be surprised if you reach the end of my first chapter and give up. It happens all the time, writing isn’t easy, don’t expect to get your work published.” That crushed me like a ton of bricks, and I stopped writing for a period of nine years. Until I remarried, and after a couple years some devastating things started happening to my family.
I lost my best friend and brother Leon to suicide in 2002, my mother-n-law to asthma, my parents divorced, my other brother broke down from Leon’s death, my grandmother got breast cancer, and more and more people in the family and friends of mine started dying one by one. I thought my family was cursed, and I was afraid to wake up each day, worrying that I would hear more bad news. I thought I was being punished, that’s when I decided to go back to writing, it was the only way of consuming my thoughts with something else, so why not give it a try again? That’s when I wrote “The Journal – Entry Two”, a piece written before Journal Entry – One. It was from my own journal, a piece I wrote when I felt like God was punishing me; but I didn’t want to give up my faith in him, even though I was hurting. Instead I just kept writing.
Now, I have two beautiful children, Kyera and Gabryel, and a gorgeous husband who supports my writing. My little family has moved recently to start a new beginning. And more then
ever I’m enjoying just writing for the first time all over again.
excited
