JK Rowling on Oprah

So did you guys watch the interview of JK Rowling on Oprah last week? I watched it online once I got home from work.

Seriously, I cried.

I never realized how many parallels there were between my life and Rowling's. She was a single mother, escaped from a bad marriage with a tiny baby. There wasn't always enough money.

Then there was an idea -- a spark that set a flood loose in her mind. And so came Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Six months into writing, Jo lost her mother. In the interview she says that her mother's death is reflected on every page of the Harry Potter series.

I found the interview so incredibly inspiring.

I'm a single mother who escaped an awful marriage with a two-month-old baby. I moved in with my mother because I couldn't afford to support us on my own.

Then there was an idea. A light bulb came on. I started writing Emerald's Keeper long-hand in a $0.10 spiral notebook.

My younger brother died a month after I started writing. And on every page of Emerald the way his death affected me is reflected.

It's so hard sometimes to be positive in the face of so many challenges. But thanks to Jo's interview I feel a new sense of invigoration. Determination.

She reminded me that through hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.

So I'll keep my chin high and one day, someday, everything will look a lot brighter.