Erin Downs

Hello everyone! I am Erin Downs. I’m 38 years old and I was born in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. I currently live in Pennsylvania but eventually I plan to go back home to Arkansas. I have always and will always be a country girl through and through.

I first began writing stories way back in grade school and I have never stopped. In all honesty I’ve always been too afraid to even finish a book because it always seemed like the end was so final. That fear has held me back for years.

Then there’s that moment when you finally finish writing a book and the next big fear hits: Putting your baby out there for people to read and love or read and hate and it is terrifying. I finished my first book 8 years ago and I have been sitting on it all this time. I was frozen in fear. Afraid of getting my work out there for the fear of what people might think or say.

What if nobody buys it? What if everybody hates it? All these fears will just hold you back. I finally decided to say, “Screw you, fear!” and I put my baby out there. It doesn’t matter if people buy it. It doesn’t matter if people hate it. What matters is that I am doing what I love and that’s what really matters in life. Do what you love. Chase your dreams.

There’s a country song that I love that I really should have listened to a long time ago. It has a line that says: “If you got a dream, chase it, ’cause a dream won’t chase you back” – Thank you Cody Johnson. You are a wise man!