and I quit writing for a few years, it was not just the fact of raising children and having a home and husband. As we all know, life has its ups and downs and it is not always the season for pursuing our hearts desires. But as I lived those years without writing, my life was certainly not a desert, but a vivid landscape with more and more life experiences being added to my storehouse. After my husband died I slowly became aware that this is the perfect time of my life to brush off my old dreams and start writing again.

My first novel, The Secret of Surviving in the Sea., formed fully in my mind for probably a year. It took me three months to write it, approximately another year working with an editor, then almost a year to get it published and available to the public. I don’t know if I ever thought this day would finally come, but here it is and I am thrilled!

and experienced many things, like growing up (a feat in itself), falling in love, raising five children, traveling the world with my husband and subsequently caring for him through ten years of declining physical health, losing him unexpectedly, and surviving the surrealism of losing my house in a fire.

I sold my first short story to Teen Magazine when I was 26 years old. I wrote seriously while raising three, then four, then five babies. I sold many short stories and poems but I always wanted to be a novelist. I also won numerous awards, mostly from The League of Utah Writers, of which I also served one year as president. Circumstances of life took me away from my writing for several years, but I’m back! And my first published book is now available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, paperback and ebook—what an exciting ride this has been.