What do you feel called to do? Write? Paint? Sculpt? Teach? Build? Design? Make? What keeps you up at night? Inspires you? Are you working on it? As you can tell for me, writing is important. It calls to me. Everywhere I turn I see the possibility of a story. The tall pine tree in the back yard - what has it seen? The little boy staring hard at the money bars in the park - why look first and not just climb them? The ladybug tending to the flowers in the garden - what does she see? There are time…

In both life and writing, things don't always work out when we think they will. Some things happen earlier or later or not at all. For example, I got the contract with Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. to publish Sonji in the fall of 2021. Sonji was originally supposed to release in late spring of 2022. It didn't happen. Sonji published early summer of 2023. Why? God's timing is better than my own. Also, my editor Mel Hughes and I both struggled with bouts of COVID-19. I had brain fog horribly for six m…

Getting published is no easy task. People talk about publishers and agents being the gatekeepers - but I've found this to be only partially true. You are the gatekeeper to your own writing. Know who you are pitching to. Know if they print Middle Grade (8 to 12 years) or Young Adult (12 to 18 years) or just Adult (18+ years). I hear complaints now and again from authors about publishers pushing them to add in smut or language, so the book sells better. But that's not everyone. My publisher, Elk L…

Sometimes I stop and read back over some of my writings. As I read them, laughing, occasionally crying, gasping, just like a reader re-enjoying a favorite comfort read, I begin to notice themes in my work. A common one is friendship. My short stories with Ye Old Dragon Books' anthologies have all had friendships in them - some more prominent than others. Sonji, my YA horse fantasy, features a friendship between a boy and girl growing into something more. My two stories in The Adventures of a Hor…