We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Honeliz Perales a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Honeliz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Both of my children have a rare genetic condition called Bardet Biedl Syndrome and it comes with a variety of complexities. I wanted to write a future for my children that included having a relationship. Last summer we went through a lot with our daughter with her having a kidney transplant and the complications that ensued and creating a future for her was something that allowed me to get through it. We are a praying family and God has done some amazing and miraculous things in my children’s lives as well as ours and I wanted to create a story that highlighted those things, I wanted to give hope to those in a similar situation. God is the doctor of doctors and I wanted to make sure that he received all of the glory. My daughter loves to sing and worship at church, which is why I created the character of Rose being part of the worship team. Rose is based on my daughter Heidi, except instead of her being 10 years old like Heidi she is 30. My second book, which is based on Rose’s older sister, her love interest Cooper is based on my son Samuel, who is currently 3 years old. Picturing my children as adults and how they navigate the world even with difficulty gives me hope for their future as well as other people with medical complexities.

Honeliz, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an independent sweet romance writer from Jacksonville, Florida. I spent a lot of 2024 in Rochester, Minnesota and fell in love with the city. I created the fictional town of Strawberry Falls, as a town close to Rochester and to the Twin Cities. I am proud to share that my writing is inspired by my children as well as my husband. God has done some amazing things and I wanted to be able to share it with the world.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to be able to help other parents in similar situations have hope and give themselves grace when they think that things are too difficult and they want to quit. I started writing to give myself an outlet during a difficult time. We were faced with a lot of complications post kidney transplant and we weren’t sure what was going to happen. I know a lot of people encounter these issues and I wanted to help them possibly create that future for their kids as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

From the moment our daughter was born she had a lot of surgeries and complications; we could have given up. We could’ve blamed each other, or the doctors for them not “fixing” the problem but we kept going. We kept researching and finding the best doctors and facilities to get the help that she needed. Which led us to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Honeliz-Perales/author/B0DH5W5KFK?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=b615d7ca-9dfa-46f6-809f-ddf23b63f136
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honelizbookcorner/profilecard/?igsh=MTNtZHlzdzYxczg2bw==
• Other: https://a.co/d/1LEC13K
  https://www.tiktok.com/@honeliz?_t=ZT-8t0nbzu8ckE&_r=1

Image Credits

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