I am an author. And an educator. And a wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, aunt, cousin, daughter-in-law, friend, farmer, knitter, spinner, and baker of great chocolate chip cookies.

For some of you, you have come to reading my posts fairly recently. So here’s the back story. I always have stories running around in my head. Sometimes the idea for a novel comes to me from something I see or read, sometimes from a dream, sometimes just pops into my head. Once a main character or characters start to develop, the story just keeps growing in my head, and I eventually sit down and write it all out. There are many times that characters take the story in directions that I didn’t expect or want, but it seems like they take on a life of their own.

For many years, I wrote romance stories. I tried to make them into novels, submitted them, got rejected a lot, and kept trying. That was the key — to keep trying! My family always believed that I would get published — how lucky I am to have that constant support. Finally, after Sam died, I got serious about my writing, and hired a great editor to help me polish my work. And then I submitted it again, and got a publishing contract! And another, and another.

Then I started working on my book about grief. Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude was not as fun to write as the novels, but it was both a truly self-reflective process, and somewhat healing.  And I got a publishing contract on that one too!

So now I am continuing to write fiction, while also working on a journal system for pre-teens and a non-fiction piece about living your life in balance. We’ll see what happens with those books!

All of the other things I am (wife, mother, educator, farmer, etc.) all come into all I do as a writer, all of them make my life rich and meaningful.

Who/what are you? How does it impact your life and your dreams?