Finding the Write Words

If you’re reading this blog post, it means that my debut novel has officially been published. This feels rather surreal if I’m being honest. I’ve wanted to be a writer since the ripe age of seven, and to finally say I have published my work is something that little girl could only have dreamed of.

Perhaps you’d like to know a bit more about me before you read my book? Not a problem. My name is Hanna Walker, and I am very much your average twenty-something-year-old woman. I’ve been a big fan of reading and writing for as long as I can remember—I think the power books hold within their pages isn’t something we should ever take for granted. I’ve experienced first-hand the way books can change everything. They should never be underestimated. Being an author—a designated weaver of words—is especially tantalizing. It’s hard to describe what being an author means to me in words that make sense, but I’ll endeavor to try now.  

Picture someone who is a little socially awkward, but only because it’s not nearly as easy to speak to real people as it is to interact with fictional ones. Picture someone passionate and dedicated to their craft. Imagine a person who, at their very core, is a storyteller: someone who houses whole worlds inside their head and might be able to piece together your own story with frighteningly little hard evidence. Being an author involves quite a bit of sitting around—although never lazily. Authors are always thinking and always dreaming, at least this particular author is. I often catch myself finding inspiration for future stories hidden in every day—at the grocery store, on a drive, or sitting at dinner. It’s a hobby that embodies every part of me, all the time. It’s a hobby I love so much I’ve endeavored to make it my career. 

All that said, I also love listening to music, ice skating, and baking banana bread.  

Writing isn’t my only career passion, though. I’m also a teacher—an English teacher, to be precise. It has proven to be a wonderful way for me to stay on my toes when it comes to writing and literature, while also giving me the opportunity to build relationships with the young adults who will (and I’m sure of this in my bones) change the world someday. The idea of being a life-long learner has always appealed to me. Getting the chance to teach young people has been such a rewarding way to achieve that goal. My foreseeable future most certainly includes teaching—although for how long I can’t say yet. I’m trying to see what the universe has in store for me. What I do know for sure is that I will continue to write in tandem with my teaching endeavors—whether it be novels, short stories, or poetry.  

Let’s talk about the book itself, shall we? It’s called Hearts of War, and to say it’s been a long time coming is an understatement. I’ve been working on it since April 2022, and in the two-and-a-half-year span between its inception and publication, it has gone through a few changes.  

In order to give you all real context, let’s jump back to August of 2019. I had just started a new job with my vivacious and rather cosmopolitan boss, Al. It was an assistant position that, at the time, I didn’t know would last longer than that summer. When Al told me about his wife’s ancestors from Germany, I was nothing short of fascinated. They were a family who had lived and worked on a tugboat in Nazi Germany, and a family composed of ten children at that. While Hearts of War is very, very different from this family’s true story, I did base the characters of Anna and Otto Reinholdt after Al’s wife’s grandparents Emma and Karl Kluge.  

Hearts of War is, most importantly, a story within a story. The Greek gods meet in Athens in the present day to discuss how the past year has treated them. Ares and Aphrodite get into an argument over whether War or Love is the more influential idea/power on the human condition. Athena butts in and declares that if she wishes to win the argument, Aphrodite must tell a tale about her best example of a time when Love conquered War.  

Thus, this novel is a story about gods who are telling a story themselves. Get it? It’s all good fun, I promise. Aphrodite narrates Part One, with Anna Reinholdt as the main protagonist, and Athena takes over narrating the second part in which Anna’s daughter, Helene Reinholdt, becomes the main character. I really had a fun time experimenting with the unique Point of View this type of narrative voice required—the book is simultaneously first and third person.  

Both Anna and Helene are interesting characters, and I’ve grown attached to both of them through this process. While they think they’re very different, they have the same goal: to mean something to the world around them. It was incredibly rewarding to watch them come alive within my words, clothed in Love and Wisdom. They are both the best and worst parts of me, and I think that’s a testament to the truth within my fiction. I hope you all love them as much as I do.  

I’ll end this blog post with some thoughts about why I decided to be an author. I write because I love words, but also because I love people, and I want others to find parts of themselves within my work. I write because I admire the teachers and authors who came before me, and I write for the ones who will inevitably come after me.  

At the end of the day, though, I write for myself, and that’s what matters the most. I want to make myself proud.  

I think I’m onto something, there.