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At a very young age, Emma engrossed herself in stories of fantasy and mystery. Stories such as such as Jack and The Beanstalk, Peter Pan, and the Grimm Fairytales captured her attention and sent her into daydreams of other worlds with horrible obstacles that needed to be overcome. She couldn’t get enough mystery and adventure as she read about characters with strength and wit that could change their worlds under incredible circumstances. They were given magic or advice that helped them through their challenges, and Emma easily saw how this courage could be related to every day life, as she dreamt of courageous and adventurous ways out of her own obstacles in life. She seemed to be attracted to films with horror and excitement, suspense and intrigue. At the age of five, if you asked her what her favorite movies were, you’d be surprised to hear the variety and culture of these films; The Labyrinth, It, Never-ending Stories, Poltergeist and the Little Mermaid. As she got older, she never missed an episode of X-files and the Outer Limits. She was a big Terry Brooks fan; she began the Shannara series and after her homework was done, she would read until bedtime. 

The world of make believe was all around Emma as she grew up; she was inspired by life around her. “There was a few years when I was little that things were kind of all over the place; we were moving a lot for my fathers work and money was always very tight. When I was about five, I remembered watching as my Mom painted over the rainbow and the dove that I had painted on my wall in my bedroom. I asked her why we had to do it because it made me really sad. My mother explained to me that something had happened and we had to leave our house. I think I was more saddened about losing the painting on my wall than anything.” Emma came from a large family-nine brothers and sisters. Her father worked hard in construction, but sometimes money was tight and Emma watched as her father, sometimes painfully, counted out money to buy milk and bread for the next week’s meals. But Emma would not consider her life an unfortunate one; she was surrounded by a large family with loving brothers and sisters, who shared and gave everything they had. She considered her life rather enchanting. When Emma was about six, her father received a job offer in a small town outside of Vegas. The family was very excited about the new job and packed up everything they had, sold the house, and left their small town in Utah. When her father entered the office of the construction company that had given him the offer, the man apologized that they had gone with someone different. “I couldn’t imagine how my father must have felt at the time. My parents must have been sick.” Emma’s church heard about their family and their situation. The next day, a single wide trailer had been moved onto a piece of property that used to be the towns junk yard-it was where the town had dumped all their old vehicles and tires-now it was Emma’s home. Some children might complain about the living condition, but Emma and her family were grateful. The junkyard looked like a playground to Emma, and if you asked her now, it was one of the best times of her life. “There was this old crane on the lot that I used to climb to the top of and look out over the city, especially when the sun went down; it was beautiful. I felt like I was on top of the world.” Emma told scary stories in the empty silos a mile or so away from their trailer, even though her Mom yelled at her not to in the dark, and told her horror stories about how the bats liked to tangle themselves in little girl’s hair. “I think the fear behind it made it more exciting. I never understood why it was such a big deal to my Mom that we played in the silos until about six months later when they tore them down because they were crumbling and people were getting hurt in them. I don’t think even that would have kept me from them. I think I remember crying when they were torn down.”