Early 2020 was a bad year for me. I guess most of us can say that. I’d been looking forward to the year as I’d scheduled multiple lectures across the country and was looking forward to spreading the word about the orphan trains. Everything came to a screeching halt during my first event of the year. Three hours into one of the biggest signing events of the year and we were told to go home. Within weeks my entire schedule had cleared.
On top of that, I was facing the first anniversary of my mother’s death, and I shut down. Part of me was stressing over the fact I wasn’t writing; the other part didn’t care. It was an ugly time. After beating myself up about not writing, I stepped away from the writing chair. I soon discovered a love for painting ceramics I didn’t know I had. I think I gravitated towards ceramics because it was something my mom had enjoyed doing. It made me feel close to her.
As I painted, I began to relax, and as that happened, my voices showed up. Whispering at first, then growing lower, I knew it was time to settle back into the writing chair.
I guess one thing I learned from the experience is I need to take time for myself. I now juggle writing and painting along with spending time with my family. I know some will tell you to stay in the chair and keep writing, but for me, it is all about balance. It keeps me happy, and when I’m happy, so are the voices.
I had a friend who was going through a tough time. I hated to see her so sad, and so one day, for reasons still unknown to me, I told her I was going to write her a happy ending. I thought it was going to be a simple story that would help to cheer her up. The voices showed up, and that simple story, which ended up being nothing about my friend, turned out to be my first novel, Tears of Betrayal.
I wrote Tears of Betrayal in 2000. Never having written before, I was not sure what to do with the story. I wrote it all by hand, and it sat in a folder for years until years later when I remembered the little story I'd written. After a long editing process, searching for help, and more editing, it was published in 2011. By the time TOB was published, I'd written Somewhere in My Dreams which was traditionally published shortly after.
