Have you been fortunate to realize your gift, being in your ‘wheelhouse’?  I have. For me, it’s my’ calling’. (What I believe God has ‘called’ me to do with the Holy Spirit’s direction.) -Writing stories.

I began writing prose and poetry, like most teenage girls, as I discovered myself, my passions, desires, and limitations. Later in life, after experiencing marital bliss and the heartache it can bring, my writing faded away, much like my fairy tale idea of love, marriage, and raising a family.

I lost my first husband to suicide. It’s a lying serpent that swallows you one bite at a time as it convinces you that you are worthless, insignificant, and that your family would be better without you. His death, a shocking tragedy, left me and our children doubting as to whether we failed him somehow. Would he have chosen to end his life if I were a better wife and they were better children? I have successfully ignored that guilt-trip. I believe that my children have also.

Being a wife, a partner, a helpmate was a role I cherished. In 2010, I remarried, and my new husband became my biggest fan. His unwavering encouragement and gentle ‘push’ were the catalysts that transformed my dreams into reality. Without him, I wouldn’t have imagined myself as an author, let alone a published one with four books and one more to come, completing my series.

The seed for my ‘Providential Journey’ series was sown seven years ago, in a manuscript that I penned about a young woman in the mid-1800s. She attended a rare university that welcomed women into its four-year degree program. This manuscript, a reflection of my own journey and the struggles I’ve overcome, blossomed into a historical fiction series. My first opus, my ever-encourager, classical musician husband declares.