I was 11 years old when the idea of writing a story popped into my head and I wasn't even trying to come up with a story. Here's how it began........
I lived in Monroe, Indiana on a small farm that was own by my maternal grandparents. At the time, my uncle lived in North Webster. It was in the summer. My grandparents, little sister, and I took the drive up to North Webster to visit my uncle. My sister and I knew it would be a long trip because my grandfather drove slowly and he enjoyed the scenic routes, so we took a lot of paper and coloring pens and pencils to draw with during the trip. On the way home, I was staring at the clouds thinking of something to draw when something else popped into my head instead--an idea of a story.
The story was about a little boy named Norman who died and went to the wrong part of Heaven. He was being chased by some bad guys during his journey to reach the right part of Heaven. Thinking back to that day, I have no idea why I thought there would be bad guys in Heaven, but that was the story. I grabbed a pen and began writing this story. It was flowing from my head like it was something I've done for years. That's the only way I can explain it. The love for telling stories on paper hit me like it was a part of who I was and always had been. I continued writing this story for a while and asked my mom to read it, to see if it was any good. I didn't know.
She ended up losing the story and never read but the love for writing continued to grow. I ended up writing another short story that I really liked. It was about a haunted castle. I called it My Haunted Castle. When it was finished, I wanted to send it somewhere to see if it could get published. I didn't know what I was doing but I did know it wasn't long enough for a book, so I thought a magazine would be more appropriate. My older sister read 17 Magazine at the time, so I grabbed a copy and wrote down their mailing address for submissions. I sent it to them. Weeks went by without a word. And then I got something in the mail.
My first rejection letter. It said the story was good but it wasn't a good fit for them. Obviously lol. They told me to keep writing and if I ever wrote something that was appropriate to give it another try. I read that letter over and over and kept it for the longest time. It inspired me to rewrite that short story. After a while, that little story turned into a novel. The story was the first chapter. I continued working on the story, one turned into another, then another. Before I knew it, there were 7 books forming a series.
It wasn't the only story that I wrote over the course of several years. I had many stories written by the time I was a senior in high school. I wanted to be known for this particular series so while I kept sending it to publishers, I held onto the other stories. I received one rejection letter after another but it didn't get me down. I simply went back and kept working on them, tried again. Then one year, I lost all the copies I had for my series. I ended up tossing out my notes for the series and gave up on them. After that happened, I began having dreams. The MC for the series wasn't happy with me that I had given up on the story--her story. She yelled at me in my dreams, made me feel bad, and ordered me to tell her story. Being a witch, I was terrified that she would make due to her threats and I picked up the pen and began writing her story again. I couldn't remember a lot of the story from when I was a kid so I filled in the blanks. I honestly felt like the story was better.
I continued to send it to publishers. After a while, I decided to give Peterson Estate a break and give my other stories a chance to shine. The total time it took from the day I picked up the pen to write about Norman till the day, I finally received an acceptance letter was 20 years, almost to the day. A year later, another book was accepted by a different publisher. A year after that, I self-published a book that was a sequel for the first one published. And then another year, Peterson Estate was accepted. I had read that the first finished book a writer writes never gets published so when I read that acceptance letter, I was like "Stick it in your ear, whoever said that!". I was filled with an overjoyed sense of pride that I still feel to this day. I did something that was said to be impossible! First works CAN be published! Norman's story doesn't count since it was never finished and became lost lol.
I was on a roll, I was living the dream! I began meeting other writers and I learned about editing. Then I slowly learned about marketing and that scared the crap out of me but I felt determined because this was a part of who I was. I wasn't me without this piece so I had to keep pressing on--had to learn to improve. I just had to. When the contracts expired for the 3 books that were traditionally published, I decided to change my pen name and take a risk on self-publishing. I was confident that I would make a go of it. My husband even encouraged me to write and make this shift in my career. He was so proud of me and the accomplishment that I had made getting published. It wasn't easy, and I made a lot of mistakes--I learned from them and kept moving forward.
Today, I am still learning but I've come so far. I know 300% more than when I was 11 years old. And I'm still growing. Ideas are everywhere and I hope I will live long enough to write them all. Of course, the ideas keep coming so there will be many that get left behind, but I will keep going until I can't anymore. Even passed my death, I hope there will be a place in Heaven where I can continue to tell stories.
So that is how my writing career began. And it has been a journey that I will never forget!
