We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Moriyah Cordova. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Moriyah below.

Moriyah , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have always loved stories.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things was when my parents would tell me stories. Sometimes they would make up stories about adventures, daring obstacles, and perilous quests. Sometimes they would read stories like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis or The Little House Books by Laura Ingles Wilder. Stories have always been such an integral part of my life. I suppose, given how much I loved stories, that becoming a writer was destined, though I used to not think it was.

As a kid, writing was my nemesis. I couldn’t write to save my life. A mere three-paragraph essay for school would take me up to three months to write while living in agony and anxiety even up to high school. Writing always sounded like a sort of impossible dream. Oh, it would be so wonderful to write a story, but I could never. That all changed when I was around fifteen. I started to feel this nudge to write a story. The feeling kept nagging at me. It wouldn’t leave me be. All of a sudden I started hearing about these different writing challenges and stories from different authors on their writing journey. Through it all, that still small voice wouldn’t leave me. I have felt that small voice before and knew it as God in my life—I am a Christian, and this is how my writing story came to be.

Then came the day I decided to trust in God. I gave up my excuses, my worries, my what-ifs, my fears, my perfection—that one was a hard one to let go of. I decided to trust in Him. Every day I prayed for Him to walk alongside me and give me the words and ability to write. Then in November I penned my first ever novel, and in thirty days I wrote over 70,000 words. Truly, it was a miracle, and it was only possible because of God and His hand in my life.

In that season of time, He became my writing partner. I can’t write without Him, and it is truly a gift in my life. I don’t think there is anything I would do to speed up that process. What I have found in my life is that God meets with me at the time when He finds me ready. It is not a day before or a minute after. That was the exact right time for me to learn how to write with Him teaching me along the way. I wasn’t ready before then. When I was ready and I felt Him say I was ready, that is when I took a leap of faith and wrote my first novel. That is the most essential part of writing, in my opinion. It is the surrender of yourself and your perfection and worries and fears and giving it over into the hands of Jesus. It is waiting on His timing. When He says it is time to go, you run without question.

How I came to writing may not be the conventional way but I know I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Moriyah , 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?

Of course! My name is Moriyah, and I am a Christian, writer, storyteller, and coffee lover. My love for stories and storytelling began when I was saved by Jesus. Since then, my love for stories and storytelling has only grown. It began with the Bible, and all my stories go back to that one book that changed my entire life. I love to tell stories that touch the heart, spread light for the Kingdom, and reveal Jesus in the pages. I hope my stories can bring light to those who read them and that they will encourage them in noble pursuits.

I write stories for all ages—my current writing project is a children’s story about the light fighting against the darkness and how to fight against fear. All my stories are rooted in my faith as a Christian and child of God.

As well as writing, I run a blog filled with writing tips and clean book recommendations, which is a passion of mine. I host a podcast all about faith and writing for my audio learners and multitaskers. I am currently working on creating a course where I will be teaching about how to be storytellers for the King. It is going to be called The Fable Rose Academy. This project will be where I share my best advice on writing and specifically on being a Christian creative. It should be up and running sometime this autumn, which I am very excited about.

When I’m not writing and dreaming up new stories, you can find me with my nose in a book, most likely reading a fairytale or novel by C. S. Lewis, dressing up in cottagecore dresses, wrapped up in knit sweaters, watching films with my family, walking through the forest where I call home, or discussing the Bible with a warm mug of chai.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think I can best sum up my mission in the tagline for The Fable Rose Academy. “Learning to be storytellers for the King.” That truly is at the heart of my writing and everything I do. It is for God—my King. My hope is that all I do honors Him. I want my writing and my life and all I do, really, to be a light for Christ and to point people to Him. With that, I also want to be listening to and obeying God in whatever He wants me to do. He has led me to writing and storytelling. He has led me to specific stories and missions. I want to continue to follow Him in everything I do, no matter what. This is my main mission in all I do.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I graduated from high school, I had a plan. I was going to write and work towards publishing. Everything was set and ready. Then blurriness started to creep into my vision. It started small and, in a matter of weeks, grew to the point where it was hard to see anything clearly. Try stretching out your arms and placing your hands out like they are touching a wall. That is the extent of what I could see clearly. Everything past that became blurry. People became like blurry blobs of color moving around me. It was terrifying. For a time I wondered if I was dying—a doctor wondered if I had a tumor, but thankfully that wasn’t the problem. Scary still, with how fast the blurriness was taking over my vision, I feared I would become blind. What would life be like without the ability to see? How could I manage? What would happen to my writing? If I couldn’t see, then could I ever write again?

That brought me to a really low moment in my life when I had to think hard and figure out two things. First, I am a Christian. I say that I trust God and that I will follow Him no matter what. If that is true, then can I trust Him fully now, even if that means giving up my dream of writing? Can I still follow Him even if this dream is taken away? Two, I believe God made me a storyteller. I believe He has placed specific stories on my heart to write not just for myself but for His glory and His kingdom. With this, I do believe that God will make a way for me to be able to write and tell stories. Nothing is impossible, and He could heal me.

So in my mind, there was a war between these two beliefs. Do I trust God even if He takes away my ability to write? Do I believe that if God has placed a call on my life, He will fulfill it? Ultimately, it came down to a question of trust. Do I trust God no matter what happens—if I become blind or I am healed—no matter the answer? For myself, I realized that writing had become an idol in my life. An idol is a thing we worship. Worship can mean a lot of things to different people. Simply put, an idol is something you will do anything for. You will give your time, thoughts, and energy to it. You place this thing (or even person) above everyone and everything else. It is the thing. Your identity. The thing that gives your life meaning and purpose. Specifically, to the Christian faith, an idol is anything you place before God. Another way to see it is it is the thing you do not give God kingship over. It is your thing. It is so important to you that you can’t let anyone else have a say over it.

I didn’t realize till then that writing had become that in my life. Writing became an idol for me. Writing was everything to me. Yes, God was also my writing partner, but when it came to the moment that writing could be taken from me, I panicked. I wanted to take control. It was a part of who I was. It was my identity. I am a writer. I am a storyteller. For a time, it was above being a Christian and a Child of God. Somewhere along the way, my priorities shifted.

Now I had to figure out what was more important to me. Was it God or was it writing? Was it being a Christian, or was it telling others stories? When all is said and done, could God satisfy me and Him alone?

It took time, but I came to the place where I chose God. I chose to trust God no matter what would happen. I chose to trust that He does have a plan and that it will be for good even if it wasn’t what I was expecting.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)

Looking back on my life, God has been so good to me. He has met with me and changed my life. He saved me. There were years that I was struggling and felt broken beyond repair, but through it all God was there. I know who God is. I know what He has done in my life. I cannot deny all that He has done for me. So I will stand beside Him.

By His mercy and great kindness in my life, he has begun to heal my vision. There is still the blurriness at times, but it is so much better than it once was. He has given me the gift of stories and storytelling and has let me continue to write. I am able to write stories—stories I know He has a plan for. These are stories I know that I couldn’t have written without having gone through this season of life. I’ve grown as a writer and have become better in this time of blurriness. For that, I am thankful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fablerosemc.blogspot.com/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fableroseacademy
• Other: Podcast: https://faithwritingcoffee.wixsite.com/my-site

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  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/fablerosemc

Image Credits

Moriyah Cordova and Abigail Aviva Cordova