Raquel Duran - Intern

During my time as a student attending elementary school through high school, I have read many books and have thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being taken to another world through the power of words and my imagination, which caused me to take an interest in reading and writing. After I finished high school, I decided to take an internship rather than attend college, as I wanted to learn more about how to be an author in order to develop my writing skills and have the necessary preparation to have my books published. I am quite passionate about writing when it comes to fantasy literature. I've seen everyone's typical knights and wizards, but I feel as though American mythology could use more representation. I've found it to be quite fascinating, sometimes outright frightening, and I believe that it is the perfect type of mythology to be contributed more towards, from tales of wendigos struggling with their insatiable hunger for flesh, to deer women being a mother figure to a child of destiny. My long-term career goals are to master the art of the hero's journey in my writing, so that I can tell really amazing stories and inspire others to brave their real-life hero's journeys. I have attempted to write stories of my own in the past, but have since discarded them immediately afterwards due to their poor quality of writing and my low confidence in my skill. However, I created and published a web novel named Yormishar on the website WebNovel.com. While it wasn't great success, I accepted this period of time as a self-teaching lesson on the mistakes I made and how to avoid them and notably, I decided to believe in myself more and keep getting better and better. To this day, I have not received any sort of recognition or award for my works yet. However, I hope to one day receive fame and recognition for my works.