Bio

Fleeting Moments Photography

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was born in Utah, raised in Washington, married in Oregon, and now spend my perfectly temperate summers and very long winters in the mountains of Wyoming with my brilliant educator husband and four amazingly loud children. Really, I don't know where they get it because I didn't raise my voice until my second son was born. The child was a happy tornado who thought "No" meant "Oh what an angel".

I have always loved writing, as so many writers do, and it's always been a part of me. I was naturally shy, but found I could say exactly what I meant if I wrote it down. At times, my only outlet was a pen and paper. I pursued an Art Major in College, with a minor in either Ballroom Dance or English. I was one of those people who had no idea who they were at that age. I married and we started our family, and I was at home while my husband taught, coached, and furthered his endless education, as so many educators do.
Life hit, rocked, and rolled us, we managed to survive. My family was my life.

Several things happened over a very short period of time.

1. An incessant pull to write down our experiences for our posterity constantly nagged me, growing stronger with each passing year, but I didn't have time, didn't know where to start. My journals, though, weren't enough.
2. My youngest child began full-time kindergarten. This was devastating . . . for two days. I got over it.
3. President Henry B. Eyring gave his talk in October General Conference, 2007, in which he shared a prompting he received from the Spirit of the Lord, which I memorized on the spot, "I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down." Quiet lightning.
4. My friend started a writing group. My heart pounded as I signed up.

Suddenly, I was given the time, the heart, and the guidance. I wrote Comes the Sunlight in three weeks. It was under a hundred pages. My writing group critiqued it. My friend encouraged me to submit. I did. No cover letter, no synopsis. The publisher used the SASE I did manage to include. I edited, then tried another publisher, this time looking at their guidelines for submitting.
Another rejection, but at least it sounded like they had discussed it. They encouraged my writing. They just didn't know how to market it.
I revised, added, submitted again to another publisher. The letter was personal. It was a rejection, but I loved it. Because they knew I could write. They were moved, and knew the story needed to be told. But again, they just didn't know how to market a true story written like a church talk. They told me to keep trying.
I set it aside. I'd done all I could with what little I knew. I needed to learn more.
At the next writing group meeting, I shared my rejection, was cheered, and we moved on. Rejections were our medals of honor. We were putting ourselves out there. The rejection letters proved it. As usual, toward the end of the lesson the monthly challenge came.
Try something you haven't tried before. A genre, a POV, a voice. I gulped as my friend looked at me, knowing.
Fiction. I knew it was my challenge as soon as she issued it. I had vocalized several times how in awe I was of fiction writers. How did they get ideas? How did they create worlds and characters so original and real? The advice given to me? Find inspiration in a classic you love.
Enter Jane Austen's Persuasion. I've loved Jane Austen's novels for a very long time. And the lesser known Persuasion was my favorite.
After days of pondering, working it out, listening, I woke up one morning with an opening scene in my head and the perfect location for the story. I scrambled for my notebook and scribbled, then reached for Persuasion and wrote a very skeletal outline. Everything else came after that. The Orchard.
And I was hooked.
When I finished, I sent it out to readers. After editing, I submitted to yet another publisher. I thought I was done. How could I possibly come up with something else? I came down with the flu. And one of the characters nagged at me. She needed her own story. The Inn.
Before The Inn was even close to being done, I knew which new character called out for her own story.  There was barely a week between leaving The Inn and falling into The Lake. I spent the cold Wyoming winter (October thru April- we only have 2 seasons: Winter and Road Construction) writing this trilogy, and I was still waiting for word on The Orchard. That's okay. I could wait.
Because on Easter Sunday my husband and I had a fascinating discussion about the book of Mormon, and the people in it, and what if...? By the end of the day I had an outline, character names and bios, and excitement all over again. Excitement is not a good enough word. Thrill, drive, hunger, exhilaration.
In early August, three days after I finished the first draft of Remnant, the week of my 39th birthday, nine months after submitting it, I received the email from Covenant Communicatons. They loved The Orchard! They wanted it! They wanted revisions! I could do that! I could SO do that!

I don't know what the future will bring. I don't know if Comes the Sunlight will have it's chance. This is all new to me and I am learning everything I can. Life is a surprise. But I finally know who I am. I'll do my part.

Surprise me.