Why I Write – Niki Kamerzell

I’m delighted to welcome another Darkstroke author, and fellow Corgi owner, Niki Kamerzell, to my blog today.

I write because I love creating stories. When I was younger, I would have these dreams and wake up and think about them all day. I would spend my time expanding the dream in my head. As I walked to school, or sat in my back yard, I would create these stories. But I didn’t write them down. At the end of the day, they would be gone, and I’d start over the next day. I wrote small, silly things throughout my life but not seriously.

I remember I went on a trip with my now husband and another couple. We went fishing and kayaking and hiking and it was a lot of fun. One morning while my husband was sleeping and the gal from the other couple was out jogging, my friend and I decided to go kayaking while it was still early. I was new to it and not very good but the river was wide and shallow and slow, so it wasn’t all that dangerous. We got to a fork in the river and he explained how to get through it and I went first so he could follow me. I made it through and when I relaxed at the other side, my kayak flipped. Apparently, the current was still present. Oops.

Now, in the kayak there is a rubber seal that goes around you and when you flip, you just push off the bottom with your feet and it should break loose. This seal was brand new and no matter how hard I pushed, I couldn’t get lose. As I said, the river was shallow, so I could reach down and feel the bottom, but it was too far away to get purchase and flip over. So, there I am underwater thinking I’m going to die. I reached around and found a loop and pulled and the rubber seal broke loose. I don’t know how long I was under. Probably less than a minute, but it felt like forever.

This thought imbedded into my head…I could have died. What would be different? I wondered. And I started to think maybe I had died and was simply too stupid to realize.

I went to work and told a coworker and he mentioned a near death experience he’d had, and I started to wonder if we could all be dead and too stupid to realize it. How stupid we were that as ghosts, we still went to work and paid bills. I thought it was hilarious, so I started writing it. I let my coworker read it and he told me it was great, and I should actually write it out. And I did. That story changed and morphed and became Last Time She Died.

I started writing just for fun and I found I really enjoyed doing it. I kept writing because there is nothing else, I find as freeing except maybe backpacking in the mountains.

I’m a Colorado Native and besides writing, I love hiking and camping and reading. I have a husband, Zach, two cats, and a Corgi. I love music, and theater, and, pre-COVID, my husband and I went to the ballet. I’ll try anything once unless it’s illegal, related to heights, or food that really smells bad. I’m naturally sarcastic and it’s interesting to learn that some people don’t understand the language. It gets me in trouble, and I’m still learning how to hide it.