the storyteller and her stories

speak, friend, and enter

Hello there! I’m Maya: writer, wanderer, dreamer, reader, forest girl, poet, and daughter of Jesus. I believe in the power of stories, the beauty of creation and creativity, and the unending grace of God.

Welcome to my blog, my place to share stories that matter.  Please, friend, join me on this journey. There will be tears and pain, but it’s all worth it.

Because the stories are true.

I’m so glad you’re here!

about my blog

The idea of wandering has always captured my imagination. I love travel (both real and through stories), and I spend plenty of time getting lost — in the forest, in story ideas, in books. I’m a wayfarer.

But I’m also a wordsmith! I write fantasy, fiction, short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction (and I’ve been writing for over ten years now). I love playing around with words to create beautiful works of art that tell the truth in new ways.

If you’re new here, check out some of my favorite posts:

• God is enough. Sincerely, Me
• admission // a poem
• Fawkes (book review)
• 10 things that make me happy
• I choose to rejoice

Here at Wayfaring Wordsmith, I don’t have a schedule. I don’t have a specific type or kind of posts (although you’ll find lots of book reviews, poems, and blog tours). Instead, my goal is this: I want you to believe that the stories are true. That there’s hope. That story is powerful and God’s grace is forever.

So that’s what my posts are about. True stories and the true Story. For you.

the stories are true

Life is hard. The world is cruel, and it’s so hard to see anything good. We get stuck wandering through an endless landscape of darkness, hopelessness, and fear.

But don’t give up, wanderers! There is hope.

It’s like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.

~ Sam Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings

There’s some good in this world. There’s beauty, and truth, and virtue, and glory, and friendship. There are stories and songs and food and fires.

All we need to do is remember the things we’ve forgotten.

We need something to remind us that it still exists, even if we can’t see it. We need something beautiful hanging in the dark sky to remind us there is such a thing as daylight.

~ Armulyn the Bard, The Wingfeather Saga

Remember the story the whole world is whispering.

The winter is whispering, “green and gold,”
And the heart is whispering, too–
It’s a story the Maker has always told
And the story, my child, is true.

~ Armulyn the Bard, The Wingfeather Saga

And impossible things can happen.

Jane, I remember! It’s all true! Every impossible thing we imagined with Mary Poppins – it all happened!

~ Michael Banks, Mary Poppins Returns

about me

• I love to talk about difficult and/or interesting things (especially via letter with my amazing pen pals).
• I like cilantro, dark chocolate, black pepper, coffee, and heirloom tomatoes.
• I believe in the Trinity, the truth of the whole Bible, and salvation by grace alone.
• I love BOOKS: especially ones by Tolkien, Lewis, Chesterton, N.D. Wilson, Andrew Peterson, Nadine Brandes, L.M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, Havilah Gael…
• and MOVIES: Rogue One, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Return of the King, La La Land, Mary Poppins Returns, Gattaca, Gladiator…
• and MUSICALS: Dear Evan Hansen, Fiddler on the Roof, Hamilton, Hadestown, Frozen (Broadway), Beauty and the Beast…
• and MUSICIANS: Andrew Peterson, The Gray Havens, Audrey Assad, Jess Ray, Namo, Skye Peterson, Ellie Holcomb, Peter Hollens, BYU Vocal Point, Voctave…
• and  THE BIBLE. My favorite books of the Bible are Isaiah, John, Ephesians, and Romans.

MY BOOKLIST SITE: I have another website, Bibliotheca, where I’m working on creating an index of book reviews and book lists. I’m slowly adding to it and I’d love it if you’d check it out!

MY IMAGINARY ASSISTANT: Thanks to the Author Assistant Agency, I now have an official assistant: Katriona Aurelie Day Took, aka Kate. She’s amazing, and I highly recommend requesting one from the AAA yourself!

A day may come when my novel is finished, when I have written it all and finished editing it, but it is not this day. A time of rejoicing and happiness when the hours of typing are finally complete, but it is not this day! This day… I write.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Comment below if you have a question or just want to chat.

Tally ho,

He is the missing piece to the puzzle—the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together. Every story whispers his name.

~ Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible