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by Staci Stallings

I just heard a song called, “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” and it got me to thinking about the series that is currently being released called “The Imagination Series.”

Much like The Grace Series before it, The Imagination Series follows a group of friends. When we start their story, they are all in high school. Honestly, when I wrote the first one “Becoming Me” in 2009, there wasn’t supposed to be more story to it. That was supposed to be the end.

But, as usual, God had a different idea. So here I am nearly 10 years later, writing the last four books, and what a journey it has been.  Like so many young people today, they battle with the norms of society—in and out of relationships, falling in love and then wondering what that even means when life happens, trying to navigate growing up with parents and past issues.

It’s so interesting to me watching them trying to be friends but sometimes not even really knowing what that means.  What happens when a friend makes decisions you don’t agree with?  What happens when they hurt one of your mutual friends?  Who picks up the pieces, and how do you go on?

I think being friends sounds so simple, but if you’ve lived for very long, you know the fallacy of that. Becoming old friends is even more profound because you remember the backstory when him and such-and-such were in love, long before he fell for the one who would become his wife. You remember that time at the prom, that day at the beach, those times of hanging out at school.  You remember the dances and the classes and just trying to keep everything in one piece. You remember graduation and summer break, going back to school and everything being different…

You remember.

In this series, I think maybe even more than any other, the reader gets to go along for that crazy ride called growing up with all the turmoil and hope, all the heartache and bumps and bruises.

I’ve been reading a couple of these books again just getting them final ready to go, and the journey in them is just so profound.  Because I remember their prom and the first time Nelson asked Paige to play with him. I remember the notebook, Paige’s words, and Nelson’s melodies.  I remember who they were even as I write who they are becoming.

It’s strange in a way to “be” at both places at once.

Where they are, and where they were.  Seeing who they are because of who they were and what they’ve been through.

And for me, it gives me insight into my own kids and their journeys now.  I can stop just a moment and realize how very far we have come in this crazy thing we call life.

So, I hope, dear reader, that you have some time to spend with these characters as they grow up, so you too, can learn from them about life. I know I have!

Becoming Me

Book 1 in

The Imagination Series

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About the Author:

A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.