I never set out to write a book. I’d been writing ‘stuff’ since I was a kid. I was that four-year-old barefoot child sitting in her sandbox making up songs. That morphed into songwriting when I was a young teen. By seventeen I was in my first professional band. Much of my early adult life was touring my surrounding states as a singer/songwriter/performer.
At this time I was coming up with new songs, hook lines, titles, ideas of all kinds for songs. However, one day I got a paragraph in my head. It wasn’t a lyric. It was a paragraph. After three days this paragraph was still in my head so I said, “Fine! I’ll write it down.” I wrote it down in a little empty journal that I had. After writing it down I began asking questions like - “Who’s saying this? How old is she? What’s she been through to say such a paragraph?” With each question came a clear and concise answer. She was 17. Her name was BethAnne. She’s just lost her newborn and then her husband. She lives in a town where many other have passed on due to the same illness that took her son.
And there it was - the beginning of a story. It was never a goal of mine to write a book. I just found that writing on this story helped me whenever I was overwhelmed by the business of making music. So, I kept writing the story.
In 2009 I retired from music. I was married with five kids and they were doing more music so I stepped aside - mainly from lack of encouragement to continue. But I passed on my love of music to all my children. Having collected many musical instruments throughout their growing up years they had many to try out and enjoy.
In 2010 we moved out of state. Many of my friends from back home knew I’d written a book and I searched for a way to share it with them. That’s when I found KDP. Kindle Direct Publishing a subsidiary of Amazon. After hiring a great guy to create my cover art I published in 2011. Love Is Patient is Book One of The Rock Creek Series. And yet, after I published the digital version of my first book some of my friends asked, “So, when do I get a real copy that you can sign?”
So, I began researching publishing a hard copy version. And I found that Amazon has that option as well. I liked how user friendly it was on their site to self-publish so I just went for it. I had several beta readers and editors that gave me feedback as well as helping to polish the book into a gem that it is today.
Since 2011 I have published three more Rock Creek Series books; Love Is Faithful, Love Is Kind, and Love Is Hopeful. I’m so proud of these books.
This series is published under my name at the time that I wrote them.
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