Welcome

Welcome to my author page!

Okay, that sounds REALLY weird. Me? An author? Is that possible?

Strangely enough, it is!

I’ve been writing all my life. I distinctly remember writing a “book” when I was nine about my neighbor down the street. It was called “The Gentle Giant.” I typed it up on our Apple IIGS, printed it on our dot matrix printer, and bound and illustrated it myself. I wanted to be like the authors of my favorite books (and there were plenty!).

In high school I wrote with my best friend constantly. We had spiral notebooks that we would pass back and forth between classes where we would write fantastical stories of adventure and romance. We would spend our summers coming up with stories in our “Imagination Station,” pretending to jump into paintings and find new worlds to explore. Even attending separate colleges we would write long letters to one another filled with both reality and fiction.

The years went by and life got busy. I finished college and went on to be a middle school theatre teacher while she moved to Prague and continued to write her own stories, becoming the author I always knew she would be. I got my masters degree and moved into the library, surrounding myself with stories written by others.

I got my “writer’s fix” through blogging first about our journey to become parents, then about staying home with my twins and the activities we did together. Blogging took a back seat when I went back to work and once again I was surrounded by the stories of others.

2020 came with a lot of challenges for all of us and the decision was made for me to leave the library and take on a new role to help my family. This one held no stories and left me feeling like something was missing. I began to write again. Both fiction and blogging.

Anxiety left me feeling like an imposter and certain that I would never be a published author. That my dream of having others read my stories the way I’d read countless others’ would never be a reality.

And then my high school friend reached out to me with a challenge. She asked me to write a story for an anthology she was putting together. I told her I made no promises, but that I would try. I invited another friend to join the ranks and she challenged me even further, asking if we could write a story together.

To be honest, I didn’t think it would come together. I felt certain that our writing styles would never harmonize and struggled with self doubt. Both of my friends listened to my anxieties and encouraged me without hesitation. They had faith in me when I did not.

And today I get to say that my story – the one I wrote with my friend – will be published.

I learned so much through the process and have hope that this is only the beginning. I am looking forward to continuing my writing journey. I know I will doubt myself again, but I also know who to turn to when I need words of encouragement.