Nostalgia & Closet Confessions

I don't remember a time when books weren't part of my life. Growing up with an elementary school teacher, mom, and four older sisters = Lots of Reading.  Sure, I went through phases where all I read was Sports Illustrated Kids Magazine or cereal boxes, but reading is everywhere even if it's not in books. Posted below is a picture. Many will just see books, some will see classics, some will have memories and feelings from reading these themselves. I went looking for this box in my basement when I was trying to find something for a reluctant reader at my house. Opening the lid was like magic *sparkles, glitter, rainbows*. As I looked through the titles, memories came flooding. I remember laughing at Matilda and her tricks. I remember the feeling of accomplishment when I finished Little House in the Big Woods because it was sooooooo loooong! Books are magical!

The first book I ever wrote was when I was a student at Barnwell Elementary in Alpharetta Georgia. Every year we would write a story, the precious mother-helpers would type out our books, and we would self-illustrate. (If I can find them in my mess of a basement I'll take a picture) These were a treasure to me. I loved each and every one of MY books and thought I was the funniest author out there. As I got older (early junior high) I wrote short stories and eventually you just don't have mother-helpers anymore and my creative writing stopped until college. Post college, I read A LOT, and still do, but I never wrote anything other than emails, birthday cards, and narratives in hospital patient charts. By now, I had already met, and married, the cowboy of my dreams and we started having babies. Babies led to more babies and after my last one which was very soon after  my #3 child I got a hair to write again *sparkles, glitter, rainbows*. I was a closet writer...Ha! Ha! Ha! I think there are more of us out there than we know. I finally confessed to a friend living in Australia and sent her half of a NA novel I was writing and asked her if it was good enough to keep going. She cursed my name two days later when she was left with a cliff hanger, unfinished MS. Needless to say, I kept writing and finished two adult MS that are still on my laptop. They were my first book babies and I will forever be in love with them and eventually I will do something with them. Now, I think I've found my niche in early chapter book writing. Most of the time I feel like a kid in a big body, just ask my neighbors and co-workers. So thus begins my journey.