I’m delighted to have Katy Lee as my guest today. Katy Lee writes “higher-purpose stories in high-speed worlds.” She is an inspirational author, speaker, home-schooling mom, and children’s ministry director, and has dedicated her life to sharing tales of love, from the greatest love story ever told to those sweet romantic stories of falling in love. Her debut novel Real Virtue is a finalist in many writing contests, and took second place in the 2011 Georgia Maggie Award of Excellence. Katy lives in Connecticut with her husband, three children, and two cats.

So please welcome Katy!

Author Katy Lee

Thank you, Connie, for inviting me to your virtual home today! I’m excited to talk about my dreams with you and your readers. What a great topic! With the release of my novel, Real Virtue, many have asked me if I have always dreamed of becoming a writer. I’m sure it’s a common question that newbie authors get a lot. After all, writing a novel is not easy, and one would have to have some type of driving force pushing them to the finish line or “The End.”

But I have to be honest … I was a reader, not a writer. This whole writing journey has been a huge surprise to me. As a child, when someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always a mommy — never a writer. As far back as I can remember becoming a mom was the only dream I had.

And eleven years ago my dream came true. Today, I am blessed to be the mother of three wonderful children. (And I’m not just saying that. They really are great people.) But through them, God fulfilled that desire of my heart, but He also showed me that it was His dream He had for me, too.

He showed me the reason I always wanted to be a mom was because my childhood was very unpredictable. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will tell you, like my heroine’s mom in Real Virtue, my mom was schizophrenic, and our home-life was not easy. The relationships in the home also suffered and didn’t look like the homes around us. So when I dreamed of becoming a mom, it was partly because I wanted that relationship I saw that my friends had with their moms. I didn’t understand this until I had my own children. And I definitely didn’t understand it until I knew what it meant to fully delight in the Lord.

Psalm 37:4 says to delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. But my question is who put those desires there in the first place? I believe our desires are part of the plan He has for us, and when He created us He put them in us. So once I learned that my desires for my life are the same as the ones He has for me, I began to see more than just one dream for my life. I began to see a whole slew of them.

From home schooling, to children’s ministry, to speaking at women’s events … and then to writing. It was a great awakening to all He has planned for me, and I know it’s far from over. As long as I delight in Him, and as long as I keep my eyes on Him, He will continue to fulfill the desires of my heart. He will continue to be my driving force to push on. And I love that He put these desires there in the first place, and even if they are a surprise to me, not one of them is a surprise to Him.

Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your life and dreams, Katy Lee. And for being my guest today.

Real Virtue by Katy Lee

Here’s a bit about Real Virtue:

In a virtual reality game where she can fly, someone’s aiming to take her down.

Mel Mesini is a New York City restaurateur and an avid, virtual reality world traveler. She’s risen above her misfit life and now bears a striking resemblance to her glamorous, gaming avatar. But her successful life—both online and in reality—takes a swerve the night her father is seriously injured in a hit-and-run. Mel is careened back to her judgmental hometown, where being the daughter of the town’s crazy lady had made her the outcast she was. To make matters worse, Officer Jeremy Stiles, the man whose harsh, rejecting words had cut her the deepest, is heading the investigation.

Jeremy knows he hurt Mel and attempts to make amends by finding her father’s assailant. When he realizes she’s the actual target, his plan for reconciliation turns to one of protection—whether she wants his help or not. What he wants is answers, especially about this online game she plays. Is it a harmless pastime as she says? Or is she using it to cover something up? As a faceless predator destroys the things that matter to her, Jeremy knows he’s running out of time before she loses the one thing that matters most—her real life.

If you’d like to get your hands on a copy of Katy’s book:

Real Virtue is available now in ebook from Amazon and B&N and from her publisher, Soul Mate Publishing. Paperback coming this fall!

Thank you, Connie, for having me on your blog! Readers, I love comments and would love to hear from you.

And please keep in touch with me at my website: www.KatyLeeBooks.com

You will see links for Twitter and Facebook and Goodreads. Let’s connect and get to know each other!