Journey to My First Novel
I began to write stories as soon as I could scribble letters with my pencil. My first completed short story, at age five, was about how I was going to take my horse and my hound dog into the wilderness and live off the land once I reached the wise old age of twelve. My mom had the foresight keep that story in the bottom of her cedar chest. I smile and laugh every time I see the illustrations and misspelled words.
I continued to write throughout my childhood. When I wasn’t reading or writing, I was outside, exploring our woods (either on foot or horseback) creating fantasy worlds, where my animals and I were the central characters. As a child, I was painfully shy, so creating these magical worlds was a wonderful escape from the everyday world.
By the time I was a teenager, I was bitten by the novel bug. I was going to write a bestselling novel about a girl and her horse. My school notebooks began to fill up with opening chapters of various novels. About a year ago, I found the old bin that held all of those notebooks. What was supposed to by my math notebook was filled with the first few chapters of a novel. My daughter laughed when she saw my school notebooks and asked me if I ever paid attention in class. I told her I wasn’t sure how I got decent grades, because my head was always somewhere else.
After I graduated from high school in 1985, I decided to take some time off from school. I set out from the rolling hills of eastern Iowa to the mountains of Colorado. I spent almost four years in various Colorado resort towns, working different jobs in order to ski during the winter and hike during the summer. Most of my writing during that time consisted of journaling, poetry, and short stories. Throughout those years, I had several ideas for novels, but I kept coming back to one idea. I just wasn’t sure how to write it—how to tell the story. I tried to write it several times, but never got far.
Four years after I graduated from high school, I came back to Iowa to go to college. It was there I met my husband. I graduated with a degree in psychology and got accepted into graduate school where I received my M.S.Ed in Counseling Psychology. Real life began.
Between working and having children, my writing got pushed aside. Then when I was in my mid-thirties, I got lupus. To say that my world got turned upside down is an understatement. I was so sick, I eventually had to quit my job. Lupus stole my life for years. I went from someone who ran half marathons, to someone who could barely get out of bed. The toxic medications changed my body until I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I was too tired and sick to dream or write.
For almost eight years I was very sick and unable to do much. Then, in the fall of 2011, my doctor found the right combinations of medications and I began to feel better and I slowly reclaimed my life.
Not long after I began to feel better, the novel I’d been thinking about for over twenty years came to me in one beautiful moment. I was visiting my mom and had taken her horse out for a ride when everything came together—the plot, the characters, the opening line. It was a sublime moment of clarity that I can’t put into words.
I spent the next six months writing and writing and writing. There’s nothing like finishing that first novel. I was overjoyed that I’d finally written my novel, but at the same time, I was grieving because I was saying goodbye to characters that had become so alive and real to me.
But the work wasn’t over after the last word was written and the last period was typed. That’s when I found out how little I knew about the world of writing and publishing. I’ve spent the next two years taking the novel to workshops, getting it edited and critiqued, and learning everything I can about writing and the writing industry. Ultimately, I ended up putting that novel aside. As much as I loved the characters and story, the writing wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be. I don't regret writing that novel or putting it aside. It taught me so much and it made me fall in love with writing all over again.
Since then, I’ve been writing, and writing…and writing some more. With the help of some other writers in my community, we started the Des Moines Writers' Workshop. The critique partners I've found through the workshop continue to push me and help me grow as a writer. I now have several completed manuscripts, all in various stages of editing and re-writing.
It was a long, long road to the completion of my first novel. I didn’t write it until I was in my forties. I know other authors who wrote their first novels in their fifties or sixties, or even later, so it’s never too late.
Writing is my passion. It’s what I love and it’s who I am.
I continued to write throughout my childhood. When I wasn’t reading or writing, I was outside, exploring our woods (either on foot or horseback) creating fantasy worlds, where my animals and I were the central characters. As a child, I was painfully shy, so creating these magical worlds was a wonderful escape from the everyday world.
By the time I was a teenager, I was bitten by the novel bug. I was going to write a bestselling novel about a girl and her horse. My school notebooks began to fill up with opening chapters of various novels. About a year ago, I found the old bin that held all of those notebooks. What was supposed to by my math notebook was filled with the first few chapters of a novel. My daughter laughed when she saw my school notebooks and asked me if I ever paid attention in class. I told her I wasn’t sure how I got decent grades, because my head was always somewhere else.
After I graduated from high school in 1985, I decided to take some time off from school. I set out from the rolling hills of eastern Iowa to the mountains of Colorado. I spent almost four years in various Colorado resort towns, working different jobs in order to ski during the winter and hike during the summer. Most of my writing during that time consisted of journaling, poetry, and short stories. Throughout those years, I had several ideas for novels, but I kept coming back to one idea. I just wasn’t sure how to write it—how to tell the story. I tried to write it several times, but never got far.
Four years after I graduated from high school, I came back to Iowa to go to college. It was there I met my husband. I graduated with a degree in psychology and got accepted into graduate school where I received my M.S.Ed in Counseling Psychology. Real life began.
Between working and having children, my writing got pushed aside. Then when I was in my mid-thirties, I got lupus. To say that my world got turned upside down is an understatement. I was so sick, I eventually had to quit my job. Lupus stole my life for years. I went from someone who ran half marathons, to someone who could barely get out of bed. The toxic medications changed my body until I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I was too tired and sick to dream or write.
For almost eight years I was very sick and unable to do much. Then, in the fall of 2011, my doctor found the right combinations of medications and I began to feel better and I slowly reclaimed my life.
Not long after I began to feel better, the novel I’d been thinking about for over twenty years came to me in one beautiful moment. I was visiting my mom and had taken her horse out for a ride when everything came together—the plot, the characters, the opening line. It was a sublime moment of clarity that I can’t put into words.
I spent the next six months writing and writing and writing. There’s nothing like finishing that first novel. I was overjoyed that I’d finally written my novel, but at the same time, I was grieving because I was saying goodbye to characters that had become so alive and real to me.
But the work wasn’t over after the last word was written and the last period was typed. That’s when I found out how little I knew about the world of writing and publishing. I’ve spent the next two years taking the novel to workshops, getting it edited and critiqued, and learning everything I can about writing and the writing industry. Ultimately, I ended up putting that novel aside. As much as I loved the characters and story, the writing wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be. I don't regret writing that novel or putting it aside. It taught me so much and it made me fall in love with writing all over again.
Since then, I’ve been writing, and writing…and writing some more. With the help of some other writers in my community, we started the Des Moines Writers' Workshop. The critique partners I've found through the workshop continue to push me and help me grow as a writer. I now have several completed manuscripts, all in various stages of editing and re-writing.
It was a long, long road to the completion of my first novel. I didn’t write it until I was in my forties. I know other authors who wrote their first novels in their fifties or sixties, or even later, so it’s never too late.
Writing is my passion. It’s what I love and it’s who I am.