From There to Here

It’s been almost two years since I was last here. At the time, I was acclimating to life with my new husband and helping take care of his mother, who’d recently moved into an assisted living facility. I’d retired from teaching kindergarten and the dust was still settling. Working two jobs, getting up early every morning, and dealing with five-year-olds for fifteen years had left me exhausted. I’d always dreamed of quitting my teaching job to write full-time. Now that dream was finally a reality. But where to start?

I began ruminating about writing a memoir. My oldest daughter, Liz, once said to me: “Mom, you’ve had an interesting life. You should write about it.” Liz is a writer (and a wise soul), so I thought about what she’d said. I’d always enjoyed reading memoirs, but I began to immerse myself in the genre. In fact, I became addicted. I thought maybe I’d learn something about the process or be inspired to write a memoir of my own.

Memories started bubbling to the surface. Childhood memories. Stories about some of the amazing women I’d had the privilege to know. Reflections on my days as a young mother. I started writing them down, randomly and without judgment about how they’d fit together. Would they become a cohesive story? A collection of essays? I wasn’t sure.

This went on for eight months. Then one day I looked at my husband and said, “I don’t know what this is. I feel lost.”

“Why don’t you hire a writing coach?” he said. And so, I did. Last January I started working with Brooke Warner, a brilliant coach and editor who has become an ally and friend. After a few sessions, we realized that I did, indeed, have a book. Now I just had to write it. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past fifteen months. I’m still at it, but now I’m heading into the home stretch.

So, here I am, blogging again. I’m also launching this website and a Facebook page. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll sign up for my newsletter (you can choose how often you’d like to hear from me). I’ll be talking about books, writing, faith, travel, and other things that inspire me. You can also find me at my happy place, Instagram. Thanks for coming along.

What topics interest you? Leave a comment or send an email and let me know.