My background:
I grew up in upstate NY, spent my college and first job years in CT where I met my husband, Gary, a submariner. We moved to Charleston SC where I got my first government engineering position. I accepted Christ when I was twelve, but didn’t make him Lord of my life until I was twenty-six and Gary was out to sea for three months at a time. After he separated from the navy, I transferred to Warner Robins Air Logistic Center where I finished my career. Together with God, we raised two children.
My writing journey:
In the early nineties, I joined a church drama team that had just formed. None of us had much of an idea of what we were doing, and I nearly quit. Instead, I prayed that I would either be able to contribute to the group, or know I should leave. Within minutes I had an idea for a skit, and wrote it out in a few days. I continued to write skits and one-act plays, and direct drama teams until well after they were passe’—around 2009.
In 2005, my daughter, Miri (age 12), found National Novel Writing Month on-line and decided she was going to write a 50k word novel in November. She teased me to take her to local meetings and to attempt it myself. I thought the idea was crazy, but since she was persistent, I took her. After a couple of meetings, I still thought it was crazy, but also genius. I’d been thinking about writing a novel for years but had never done it. So, on October 26, 2005, I signed up on the website and prepared to write my first novel. Miri and I both ‘won’ that year and we continued to win every year until 2019, when she dropped out in order to plan her wedding. My NaNoWriMo user name is Miri’s Mom.
National Novel Writing Month
I “won” NaNoWriMo every year from 2005 to 2023. Sadly, the NaNo website has been taken down, but before that happened, I saved screenshots of my projects page. Check out my Pinterest NaNoWrimo Memorial board.