In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.

When I left Flyleaf I really wanted to stay connected with the fans and so I continued to answer emails and tried to write some blogs and stay connected that way and my husband could tell that I was just super heavy about the fans and just being able to reach out to them so he suggested that I write a book.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

I think if you write from your own gut, you'll come up with something interesting, whereas if you sit around guessing what people want, you end up with the kind of same schlock that everybody else has got.

At art school, a teacher said: 'The best paintings are when you get lost in a piece of work and start painting in a stream of consciousness.' I wanted to do music, not art, so started writing lyrics that way. The first song I wrote was called 'Ice Cream and Wafers.' The next was 'Holding Back the Years.'

For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere. It doesn't matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live.