For The Love of Storytelling - My Writing Journey

I have been a storyteller for as long as I can remember. 

As a young child, my baby dolls and Barbie dolls with their child-inflicted haircuts, were the main characters in whatever adventure, calamity or love story I created. When the middle school years rolled around, I discovered the cool art of entertaining and evoking emotions with the power of how I strung words together in my shaky, cursive handwriting on wide-ruled notebook paper. 

By high school, my writing evolved from simple storytelling to thought-provoking essays and even the beginnings of a book born out of a story writing challenge between myself, a friend of mine and her boyfriend to see who could write the best story. 

The book never came to be, but the four days of frenzied writing made an indelible impression on me and I ended at page thirty-two with a realization that I absolutely loved writing. 

But I was scared by what I had written. It didn't matter that my friend and her boyfriend concluded that my story was the best one - even better than Stephen King himself. For over a week, I wrestled with my Christian upbringing and the world of horror I had created on paper. On a Friday evening, I made a pivotal decision to give my all to Christ and I chucked the thirty-two paged story into a school trash can. 

I also chucked my dream of writing.

I determined it wasn't safe for me to write and besides, writers didn't make much money and, not being one to actively pursue help with figuring out my future beyond high school, my writing came to a halt.

Instead, I toyed with the idea of becoming a veterinarian, a nurse and eventually I took a year-and-a-half of Sign Language Studies with the intent of becoming an interpreter. Even that idea languished and I settled on working, then married, had children and joined the ranks of becoming a homeschooling mom. 

Seventeen years after the thirty-two paged story, I came back to writing in the form of blogging. My site was called One Munching Momma and for a couple of years, I faithfully wrote posts recounting homeschooling adventures, encounters with wild creatures on the twenty-one acres we shared with them, recipes and exotic fruits that I tried - all written in the form of stories. 

But when the strain of the marriage began taking more and more of a toll on me, I deleted the blog. In that one decision, I lost everything I had written. 

Years passed again. The divorce came and went. 

The kids and I were in our new place when I discovered a call for submissions on Chicken Soup for the Soul's website. As I scrolled through the list of book titles, one caught my attention - Angels All Around. I knew immediately which story I was going to write, so I did. 

In the summer of 2019, I received an email announcing my story had made it into the book. I was beyond ecstatic. I whooped and I danced around in our tiny kitchen, scaring my kids out of their rooms and causing them to question my sanity until I told them what had excited me. 

September 2019, "Your Daughter Is Alive" was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul's book, Angels All Around, my first publication. And my only one, at the time of this post. 

Angels All Around

It was the spark I needed. That spark has ignited the old love for writing and now, it is burning strong and steady. Since the publication, I have moved forward and wrote my first book, which is currently being read by beta readers and I am beginning another book as I wait for critiques on the first book. 

I have come to the happy realization that I am a writer and always will be. Retirement isn't on my agenda; in fact, as I age, it is my intent that writing will increase because there's never enough time to say all that needs to be said. 

Stay tuned to future posts for details about current and future writing projects!