First-time author Brian T Harris knows firsthand about hard times and healing in his own life as well as his ancestors. His Japanese grandmother was incarcerated in the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the 1940s. After her family’s release, his mom remembers living in a boxcar and eating catsup packages at school because of the family’s extreme poverty.

“Going through hard things is something my family has experienced,” said Harris who grew up in Meridien, Idaho, and now lives with his wife and five children in Layton.

Although he works full time as a healthcare administrator supporting VA outpatient clinics, writing and other creative pursuits have always been part of his life. “I started with writing poems,” he said. “I sing, play the piano and guitar, and produce music. It was always on my bucket list to write a book, but I didn’t know what to write about.”

Knowing that everyone goes through hard things, he decided to craft a contemporary women’s fiction novel centered on art, healing and love. 

“I wanted to write about how we get through the hard times and come out the other end,” he said. “And about how we can support others and help them heal. I learned a lot while helping my sister through a divorce. But I also kind of wrote the book for myself.”

 Titled “Drawn to You,” the book follows Luna Reyes, a woman navigating life after the end of a long-term relationship that left her disconnected from her sense of self. After years of setting aside her artistic passion, Luna returns to drawing and painting, using creativity to process loss, rebuild confidence, and rediscover her voice. The novel encourages readers to see love as something that honors individuality rather than erasing it, and to understand that choosing yourself can be the first step toward deeper connection. Harris hopes readers will connect with the book’s themes of second chances, self-acceptance, and rebuilding after heartbreak.

Although Harris has not experienced divorce, he’s endured feelings of inadequacy, depression, anxiety, days that blurred together and unemployment. “I want my readers to know they can come out on the other side as I have,” he said. Harris served a mission in Taiwan for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a combined MBA and MHA degree from the University of Utah.

Someday, he dreams of writing about his grandmother’s life. “She’s 98 years old and lives with my mom who is a watercolor artist,” said Harris. “After the war, my grandmother’s family moved back to Los Angeles where they discovered everything they previously owned had been taken from them. They moved to Idaho Falls where there was an existing Japanese community and lived in a boxcar.”

The self-published novel has already reached new-release top charts and is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Harris hopes it will become a bestseller. Meanwhile he is deep into writing his second book during lunch hours at work.

“Drawn to You” is available at https://a.co/d/2qhjJVv .