While growing up in a very evangelical Christian household, I would write children’s stories based on Bible lessons. My mom would have our family friend illustrate them for me, and I swore up and down I would be an author one day.
And then I grew older and things started to change. My focus fell into the medical world and I dismissed the creative pull that naturally fueled my veins. Life became… harder and scarier and suddenly becoming an author or an artist or an actress was far too risky with very little pay off.
I got married when I was a senior in high school–freshly 18 years olds–and I spent the next 12 years of my life following the military wife lifestyle and placing all of my own dreams so far back in my mind that I hardly knew who I was any longer. My identity became wrapped up in being a wife, a mother, and a military spouse.
I decided to start writing again and simply post to Wattpad. I thought that if I gave myself an outlet, something creative that I could do on my own, I would slowly start to find myself again.
Only it became so much more than that.
I had absolutely no idea what the Universe was bringing into my life and how drastically everything would suddenly change for me. But through my writing, I began deconstructing my religion, I started uncovering my own sexuality. With every word came deeper meanings and buried secrets.
Bravery came with pages. Fear spiraled with the words I was typing. Connections, energy, and relationships shifted around me in ways I had never anticipated and very poorly handled.
I think that’s what coming out usually looks like, right?
After releasing a few books under the paranormal genre, I devoted my time to Vibe.
This was my very first sapphic romance and it singlehandedly transformed my entire life as I knew it.
Now, you’ll find me snuggled under my favorite Saranoni blanket, oat milk latte in hand as Joep Beving plays magical, transcendent music in the background. I’m typing away at my latest sapphic romance and falling in love with my own characters as I write them.
I’m not a perfect author. I don’t write without a million typos and 17 cups of coffee. I pants more than I plot and I change things far too often–probably leaving mistakes behind. My characters feel absolutely everything or nothing at all and I obsess over the idea of undeniable connections that shake up entire worlds.
But I’m here, living and breathing through my words and stories. These little universes give me life and I thrive living inside of them.
Writing has given me the ability to live so proudly in my queerness, to express myself in ways I never even knew was possible, and to live an authentic life worth sharing with others.
Xoxo, Liza
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