by Diana Leagh Matthews

My writing journey has definitely been just that … a journey.

I never intended to become an author. One night in 2003, I argued with a family member and thought about just leaving everything behind. As I calmed down, a book idea popped into my head. I got up around 3:00 a.m. and typed up a four-page summary.

The next day, I began writing and wondered if I could actually write a book. I heard a voice whisper in my soul, “You don’t know if you don’t try.” I didn’t tell anyone about writing a book until after the book
was finished –9 months and way over the traditional word limit.

About six months later, I moved several states away because I thought I was in love. Instead, the
relationship became abusive, and I ended up living parts of the story that I’d written.

In the meantime, I continued to write –even as much of my writing was destroyed.

After three years, I left that horrific relationship and leaned on my writing as a therapeutic tool to
help me cope with all I’d been through. Many more novels followed, and I began to hear about
writers’ conferences and groups.

For the next ten years, I learned all I could about the writing rules and the writer’s life. My first novel was published twenty years after I wrote that first book.

Was it the one that I wrote back in 2003? No. That book is still hidden away, but I hope to one
day rewrite it (again) in preparation for publication. While I love all my books and characters, that
story still holds a very special place in my heart.

Pulling from real life has always inspired my stories in some aspect.

My novel, Forever Changed, will be released in the next few weeks. The story is about a woman who ran away years earlier but is forced home after the unexpected death of her sister and brother-in-law. When she returns to her South Carolina home, she discovers she’s responsible for seven children, two
grandmothers, a farm, and a country store.

Forever Changed was inspired by my personal struggle in not having a family. I always dreamed I’d be married with children –and wanted a large family. After two abusive relationships, that never happened. For a long time, the loss grieved me deeply.

It made me wonder how one would react if they were thrust into someone else’s life and forced to raise their family.

Would the character be up to the challenge or run away?

Diana Leagh Matthews

Diana Leagh Matthews shares God’s love through her transformation from rebel to redeemed. Her day job is as a volunteer coordinator, but she writes and hunts genealogy at night. She gives programs as a speaker and teacher and presents historical monologues. Leagh’s (pronounced Lee) debut novel, Carol of the Rooms, was published in 2023. Her second novel, Forever Changed, will be released in early 2025. Leagh lives in South Carolina with her spunky Maltese. She writes the history behind hymns at DianaLeaghMatthews.com.