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.