This is my story…that Hope Remains.
Born in Wisconsin to a Navy Radioman and a teacher, I moved overseas with my family just as I turned five. Growing up in Europe led to some of the best years imaginable and sparked creativity that has benefited me throughout my life. After living in Greece for four years, my family began a series of moves that resulted in my attending ten schools in nine years. It was difficult to make friends while being uprooted so often, so I began spending all my time with my nose stuck in a book—with favorite characters who were always there for me. Between hiding The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley paperbacks inside elementary textbooks and narrowly escaping traffic while reading Nancy Drew as I walked home from middle school, I would finish a new book nearly every single day. I discovered Frank E. Peretti when I was in my early teens and couldn’t wait to one day introduce my own daughter to This Present Darkness.
While falling in love with reading, I recognized a growing desire to write my own stories. However, I struggled with a lack of confidence, and fear made me view writing as a “maybe someday” dream rather than a goal. Feeling directionless after high school, I didn’t go straight to college. Instead, I worked in a variety of industries for several years. I often found ways to incorporate my love of writing into these other jobs, whether editing procedure manuals or creating company newsletters. I was a young mother during this time, but I also accepted an opportunity as a contributing journalist for a newspaper in addition to my full-time career, and my first article was picked up for syndication.
That small nudge of validation led to finally dabbling with a novel in the early 2000s. But life got in the way, as it does, and the project was abandoned.
It was ten years later, after surviving a serious illness that was expected to take my life, that I developed an idea for a new story. I loved how it was progressing, but once again, life had other plans. I set writing to the side to go back to school for a career in the medical field.
This new story stuck with me though, and I knew it had potential. When my husband and I decided to move back to North Carolina to be closer to family right as the pandemic began, several signs were pointing me away from continuing in healthcare to finally pursue my dream of becoming an author. While freelancing as an editor, I spent most of 2020 completing my first full-length manuscript. I prayed over the choice to self-publish or go for a traditional publishing deal, and God led me directly to the right agent for my debut novel.
As I was writing my first manuscript, several characters seemed to be making their own choices about how they fit in and what they wanted to do, and I realized early on that they wanted to tell their stories next. While not actual sequels, at least four more books are coming, which are based on these captivating characters: combinations of their backstories and intersections into the original book, as well as how their lives move forward!
While writing this series, I was asked to try my hand at a romance. Let me tell you, I resisted heavily! For myriad reasons, I had no interest in writing in that genre. Nearly a year went by before I was approached again to write romance for a particular publisher, and a story idea plucked a corner of my gush-adverse brain. My punny sense of humor has a starring role in this fun story, which already placed as a finalist in a big writing contest!
Stay tuned for publishing news coming in 2024!
My Journey as an Author
Growing up as a Navy brat, I moved so frequently that making friends hardly seemed worth it. Instead, I developed into an avid reader of almost anything I could get my hands on, from YA to spy novels. Somewhere in the mix, Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly became an oft-read favorite (I still laugh at Marty burying her burned biscuits in the yard!), and my love for inspirational fiction was born.
I dreamt of someday telling my own stories. My fifth-grade teacher encouraged my first effort—a homework assignment to create a mythological tale. A creative writing class in high school reawakened my love of writing, and I freelanced as a journalist for a Christian newspaper while in my twenties.
But, I wasn’t brave enough to attempt a real novel. This was my lifelong goal—what if I failed?
Then, a near-death experience inspired my first manuscript while also affording time to write during my lengthy recovery. However, a difficult marriage coming to an end caused me to put the story aside for a more practical career path.
Nearly ten years passed before I was able to complete that first manuscript while working as an editor for a small publishing house. Typing “The End” brought a sense of fulfillment I’d never known. Little did I know how many rounds of rewrites that initial story would endure! But, it was a real, finished, piece of work that I’d poured my heart into, and I never wanted to let go of that feeling. As it happened, several side characters had stories of their own to tell, and the series is still developing.
I pitched exactly one agent with that first draft, and she saw enough potential to graciously accept me as a client (thanks, Barb!). In the time since, I’ve reworked that manuscript several times and had some amazing feedback and opportunities to improve it for publication.
Sometimes, the frustration tries to take center stage but no matter what is happening in my day-to-day, I’ve had frequent and timely reminders that God is still on His throne, and my earthly eyes see very little compared to His heavenly view. Everything I go through is to prepare me for eternity.
So, I’ll keep writing contemporary faith-based and cleverly thought-provoking romantic comedies that point to Jesus.
Because I simply love telling stories about life and love. And He authored the greatest love story of all.