My Creative Journey
Learning to read opened a magical world to me. I devoured every book I could get my hands on, and this early love affair with reading nurtured my passion for writing. I fancied myself a writer from an early age, excelling in language arts and trying my hand at journalism in high school. I wrote for our school newspaper and the weekly journal in our small town—tackling everything from euthanasia to Three Mile Island to the glaring discrepancy between the varsity football budget and the marching band’s. Looking back, I have to smile at my younger self, so eager to take on the world.
Instead of the writing career I had envisioned, I pivoted into a decade of active duty service in the U.S. Air Force and subsequently pursued a career in social work. But I never stopped writing. I found every opportunity to exercise my writing skills—from intelligence reports to award nominations, court reports, and social histories. I am a contributing author to child welfare case studies and a peer-reviewed journal article.
Writing in all these forms came easily to me. But all the while, my creative writing voice remained quiet.
I always knew I was an author. Deep down, I longed to publish a work of fiction. Yet the longer I waited, the more I forgot my creative voice and let doubt creep in. Fear whispered louder than inspiration, and my internal editor loved to remind me of all the reasons I couldn’t create compelling fiction.
From time to time, I tried. I talked about writing with like-minded friends over coffee, compiled story fragments, attended workshops—all the things aspiring novelists do. A story rattled around in my head for years. I finally wrote a few pages at the dawn of the new millennium and nervously shared them with trusted friends, who said it was compelling. And yet the project languished.
Then I found Rhonda Douglas, a Canadian writing coach whose programs help writers address both the psychological and craft barriers to completing a manuscript. Her Resilient Writers programs spoke directly to what I needed. They helped me quiet those inner demons, develop a sustainable writing habit, and—most importantly—finally get my story on the page.
Because it took so long to bring this novel into the world, I decided to skip the traditional querying process and join the growing community of self-published authors. It felt like the right choice for me, and I haven’t looked back.
Unlikely Hero debuts in 2026, with two more novels finding their way to the page. I’m thrilled to share stories with readers who will recognize themselves in these characters—people navigating the messy, beautiful complexity of real life, discovering resilience they didn’t know they possessed.