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Like many authors, I’ve dabbled in writing since I was a kid. My first stories were a series of short romances I wrote in 6th grade. My career as a budding romance novelist came to an abrupt end when another student gave a copy of my self-published booklet to our teacher. She read the stories and called my mother upset because there was kissing in the stories. My teacher pronounced that I would most likely be a writer when I grew up, but for the moment my mother should do something to rein in my overactive imagination. After that my writing dwindled to some bad poetry in junior high and a few short stories. Eventually writing went by the wayside as college, marriage, working full time, rearing a child and caring for a home consumed most of my time and energy.

One summer day about 15 years ago, after reading a romance that had been given to me by a friend who worked with the author I announced that I could do as well. As a voracious reader and middle school librarian I knew about books, so I reasoned how hard could it be to write a romance and get it published? The next day, fortified with a few glasses of wine and with input from several good friends as we floated around my pool, the outline of my book took shape.

15 years, several novel writing courses, writer’s conferences and a folder full of rejection letters later, what I naively believed would be a short trip had turned into a long journey through the world of publishing. When I finally found a home with Cerridwen Press, the historical I had developed that summer afternoon so long ago was not the book I submitted. Although it was the first written, it will be the second book published. My first book, Witch Ball, which was the third book I’d written, was released August 30, 2007.

In the end, nothing turned out the way I envisioned, but I never regretted the journey. Along the way, I honed my craft, joined a fabulous critique group and got to meet authors whose work I’d always admired and to even number a few of them among my friends. I now teach the novel writing course at our local community college that I took 15 years ago. How cool is that?