I began writing in second grade, originally because my older sister, Mel, was writing, so it had to be cool. I never stopped writing, and even as a teenager, I thought how great it was that what I wanted to do with my life professionally dovetailed nicely with my other desire of being at home as a mother.
I consider my official start to be Labor Day weekend of In some ways, it chose me. The story ideas I had in the late 90s and early s were influenced so much by my Mormon-ness that the stories coming out of me were overtly Mormon. The LDS market was the obvious—and possibly only—place to send them. The first time was years before my first novel was published, soon after I sold a few articles. I worked like crazy but got nowhere, like running on a hamster wheel.
The kids could sense my stress and acted out. It was like a cyclone was tearing things apart. One day, out of sheer desperation, I took twenty minutes to write, and I did the same thing the next day. Lo and behold, the cyclone calmed right down. For their sakes, I had to keep going, writing regularly, even if it was only a few minutes a day.
I need my wife back. One good writing session can turn all of that around, and I leave my computer wondering why I keep forgetting how much better I feel when I write. I would love to be able to be one of those people who wakes up at five in the morning to write while the house is quiet, but the truth is, while my parents are early birds, that gene skipped a generation.
One of my daughters loves getting up early, and I envy that. My most productive writing time is after that. I try to work hard from ten or eleven in the morning until the kids get home from school, around At times I can get a little extra work in after that, depending on their activities. When my kids were little, though, I had to get more creative. My Alphasmart Neo saved me back then.
