harlenne Rivera Velez

My special story:

 

Sharlenne Rivera-Vélez was born in the U.S. but raised in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. From an early age she had always been fascinated by animals and would take any opportunity to write stories about them.

 

As a child she'd hear the expression, “Está soñando con pajaritos preñaos.” This refers to people who dream about the impossible, and the direct translation is, “They're dreaming about pregnant birds.” Sharlenne would ask, “Why can’t they get pregnant?” Which led her to write stories about animals and humans doing the impossible. She aspires to do the impossible and one day she will see a real pregnant bird and say, “Ha!”

 

As time passed her interests in storytelling blossomed thanks to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Sailor Moon, Piers Anthony’s Xanth series and Sakurako Gokurakuin’s Juvenile Orion. Sharlenne realized that creatures like vampires and werewolves could hold great power in her stories. She was interested in emotions as strong motivators for good and evil and the creatures of her imagination were efficient conduits for these emotions. 

 

She enjoys writing resilient female characters that aren’t only interested in conquering their crush, but saving the world along the way, or destroy it. She also writes coming of age stories and same gender romance.

 

After realizing that she wants to write about so many different things, she further developed her storytelling abilities and now has a Creative Writing for Entertainment BFA from Full Sail University. She prefers writing prose, but has developed an interest in comics, games and animation.