By BETHANY WIEGAND
Angel Walker, of Mansfield, recently published a book titled, "Such is Life," a humorous romance story.
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WALKER
"Picture having to go to an ex-boyfriend's wedding and a class reunion all in the same weekend. No one in their right mind would consider that to be a good situation, and for Melissa Jones, it's not at all. Everything that could go wrong for Melissa goes wrong and everything she always wanted starts to happen," Walker said.
A lifelong resident of Mansfield, and a graduate of Mansfield University, Walker has used writing as an escape since she was a child.
"I tried to draw, but my stick figures were practically begging me to stop trying. I'm a terrible artist, but I've always in the back of my mind knew that I wanted to do something with writing," she said.
After some health problems, Walker realized that being a full-time author would be the best option for her.
"I had to make a good thing out of a bad situation and I finally understood what my mom meant by 'everything happens for a reason.' I sat down and started writing and now I have my first book published," she said.
Walker draws inspiration from two authors, Agatha Christie and Karin Slaughter.
"I actually went to [Slaughter's] book signing and my palms were sweating so bad I didn't want to shake her hand. She's absolutely amazing. I recommend [her books] to anyone," she said. Walker originally made her target audience for "Such is Life" college students.
"The humor and the situation I believe they can relate to," she said. Walker used people that she knew as inspiration for her characters, although it's something that she chose not to do again.
"With my new series I've been working on, the only thing I draw from my friends are their names. If I can't think of a name, I'll post something on Facebook asking for suggestions or the top post on my page and I'll use the person's first or last name. It might seem like a strange way of doing it, but it speeds up the process," Walker said.
Walker also decided to self-publish her book, "Such is Life," to avoid the frustration.
"I went with self-publishing because I wanted to have full control over everything. If it wasn't for From My Bookshelf bookstore and the writer's group at the library in Wellsboro, I would have never been able to do it or even have known where to start," she said.
"Such is Life" is available online at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and also on Facebook.
It also is available at From My Shelf bookstore, 25 Main St., Wellsboro; the Mansfield University campus bookstore; Night and Day Coffee Cafe, 2 N. Main St., Mansfield; and Studio Six, 7 E. Wellsboro St., Mansfield.
