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Writing one of these rates right up there with writing
a synopsis. If I could skip over this, I would, but
the website
designer tells me I have to do it. And fair warning;
I’m long winded. I’m not one of those writers
who struggles to make her word count. Oh, no. I always
have to cut words. Thousands of words.
So let the torture—mine AND yours—begin.
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Many writers will tell you that they began writing stories
the moment they learned to wield a pencil. I’m no exception.
But even as a child, I didn’t write “kid”
stories. I preferred something more dramatic. Something that
didn’t include Dick, Jane, and a dog named Spot. I wanted
my dogs to have names like White Fang or Cujo.
I’ll always have my parents to thank for that. They
never censored my reading material (though I suspect that
if they had truly known what was between the covers of some
of the books, they’d have been a little more careful,)
so when other girls my age were reading Laura Ingalls Wilder
and Judy Blume, I was immersing myself in Stephen King and
Jack London.
Considering my fiction preferences, it came as no surprise
to anyone that my first short stories were tales of horror,
and my first novel, penned at the age of 13, was an Alaskan
wilderness story with a wolf hero.
Eventually, my interests changed. Oh, I still enjoy a good
Stephen King novel, and Jack London remains a favorite, but
I discovered some new favorites while I was in college. Robert
Jordan. Marion Zimmer Bradley. Mary Stewart. Oh yes, I’d
found fantasy. I devoured every novel I could find, and in
time I started writing my very own fantasy novel. That novel
is still a work in progress.
A couple of years later, after I’d read just about
every fantasy novel published, I had to switch to something
else. That something else was straight historical fiction.
Again I exhausted my supply, but my longtime friend, Karen
Boss, came to the rescue with something I never thought I’d
read. Something I made fun of her for reading.
She made me read a historical romance.
Thus began a passion for, well, passion. I wanted to write
romances, and I wanted to see them in print. To help fulfill
that dream, I joined RWA, writers’ lists and critique
groups. In order to build some writing credits, I worked on
some military and NWS technical manuals. I wrote some news-style
articles for the Animal
News Center. As my writing improved, I began to sell my
work to print magazines like The
Canine Journal and Dog
Fancy, and to online publications such as Writing-World.com.
Now I’m submitting to publishers. With hard work, some
luck, and a lot of help from my wonderful critique partners,
my dream will be realized.
Oh, and the friend who got me addicted to romance? I paid
her back by getting her hooked on Star Trek. Live long and
prosper, Karen!
Like anyone cares. But for that odd person who might, here’s
the story.
I was raised in Oregon, was a normal kid, had a normal family.
Pretty boring, so let’s skip all that.
I grew up. But what to do with my life? College? Military?
Both? Hey, why not?
With that frame of mind, I made it through the application
process for the Air Force Academy, but deep down, I knew I
wasn’t ready. Perhaps ROTC would be a better fit. Nope.
Still not ready. Partying was just too big a priority.
So I settled on a state college with a criminal justice major.
I stopped just short of my B.A., though I earned enough credits
in so many different areas that if I went back I could earn
a psychology, sociology, anthropology, or criminal justice
degree in one or two semesters. That was how undecided I was.
I took so many offbeat classes just for fun that criminal
justice fell by the wayside. Time to do something else.
I wanted to write, but I just didn’t know enough about
the things I wanted to write about. I needed more experience.
More education. More traveling.
Enter the military once again. My uncle was an Air Force
meteorologist, and my stepdad was an Air Force pilot. Both
jobs sounded pretty cool, but since I’m scared to death
of flying, I ruled that particular job out.
I enlisted in the Air Force and got my first choice of schools,
which also happens to be one of the military’s toughest
programs: meteorology.
Miracle of miracles, I was one of seven who graduated from
a class that began with forty students. My first assignment
was Malmstrom AFB, MT. Then, after months of crossing my fingers,
I got the assignment of assignments. The ultimate dream for
anyone whose goal is to write a fantasy or historical novel.
I got stationed in England, where I spent every moment of
spare time researching material for my novels.
When I got out of the Air Force, I continued to work in the
meteorology field. I got a job with the National Weather Service
in Galveston, TX, where I met my husband, Bryan.
He was a Coast Guard investigator whose office was one floor
below mine. One day he came upstairs for a forecast, and…
let’s just say that the forecast was for hot and steamy.
(Hey, I’m a romance writer!)
We married and had a son, Brennan, and I continued to work
weather for the FAA and NWS, and I still write full time.
And while we were stationed in San Diego, I started writing
Emergency of the Heart, a contemporary romance with a paramedic
hero. I wanted complete accuracy in regards to the hero’s
profession, so I went back to school and am now a nationally
registered Emergency Medical Technician.
My husband now claims his greatest fear is that next I’ll
want to write a story about an astronaut…
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