Today I thought I would share a little bit about myself for the readers who don't know me on such a personal level. Tomorrow I'll write about the books. Although the two topics really do go hand in hand.
I am not positive, but I feel like I must have always loved horses. I grew up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan until I was five. We lived on the same property as my grandparents and Grandpa had me on a pony right from the start. We moved away and I'm not sure what I did for the next three years of my life, but at eight I was offered to spend a day at a friend's house riding and from there all things horse was a passion beyond obsession.
Meanwhile, I started writing...well, I'm not exactly sure when. I remember writing my first decent short story when I was in grade five, but I'm not sure what it was about. I just remember my treacher telling me that I had well written details because my character did not just eat breakfast. She stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth. That's the only thing I remember from that whole story.
I wrote another short story in grade five or six. It was about 20 pages and I used the names of the characters in my favourite horse series. Except this story involved a puppy and the girl was horseless, like me.
Then at 13, Sarah and London came along. We were updating my bedroom and I was in the basement for the time being. The basement still kind of creeped me out then. So I'm not sure if Sarah came along to keep me company or what. But I was out of books to read and too scared to sleep some nights so I wrote the first chapter or so of their story. When my bedroom was ready for me again, I settled back into it and tucked the horse and rider in a drawer. I don't remember the exact timeline but I found their story one day, picked up a pen, and kept going. Sarah and London came back easily, filling my mind constantly. I thought about them when I walked to and from school. I thought about them on long road trips. In the evenings, when I brushed my teeth and before I fell asleep. And suddenly their entire lives lay planned out before me.
The first manuscript sat finished for a short while before someone put me in touch with Laural Grimes, a librarian at the Red Deer Public Library who was a self published author. She took a copy, read it, and came back with news. She thought I had a diamond in the rough. With her careful patience, mentoring, and editing, Sarah and London became full, round characters.
At seventeen and the weekend after my grad, I held a book launch for my first book, Saving London. My writing continued. I took a year off between high school and college to work. I worked at a drug store and lived with an aunt and uncle. The year after, I lived on campus at SAIT in Calgary. I was taking the Library Information Technology program. In December of 2008 I came home to launch my second book, Sarah's Promise.
Easter weekend of 2009 was a huge one for me! I came home that weekend feeling rather sad because a horse I was quite attached to had sold and I never got to say bye. At that point, I had spent too much time alone, not liking the city, and was desperate for equine contact. That weekend I recieved a call from Sue Maull, a close family friend. There was a quiet mare for sale and I was sure I was shaking when I got off the phone. I never thought my parents would say yes. The rule was, no horse until after college. When we were on our own, we could have whatever we wanted. The next morning I was looking at the mare that would become mine only a few hours later. We moved my sweet Lily to Sue's where she still resides.
I continued writing and March 27th 2010 launched my third book, Summer Sunrise. On April 10th I moved back home to complete the final part of my course, a three week practicum. On April 13th, Lily gave birth to a stillborn foal. We had lost a beautiful filly and with both our hearts broken, I couldn't bring myself to write happy stories so I backed off from writing altogether. I finished my course the end of April and then moved in with Sue so that I was now living on the same property as Lily.
My immediate family had all moved into new homes at this point. I was living with Sue, my parents sold the home my brother and I had grown up in and moved an hour away, and my brother had followed his heart to Manitoba. It was a lot of big changes in a very, very little amount of time.
I started writing again, but it was sporadic. Then I fell in love, which leads me to where I am now. I am living in my first house in a town a half hour away from both my work and Lily. I work as the only librarian at a small junior/senior high school. We are in the process of preparing to move Lily closer in the spring, which will open a whole new world of adventures.
If you read my blog from yesterday, you know all the plans for the stories. I have resumed writing, finally at peace with every aspect of my life. I can't wait to finally be able to say I launched my fourth and final book in the Sarah and London series at 21 or 22 (depending on how long it takes me!) years-of-age. I can't wait for the future and where life will take me!
This is too much to read through for editing right now so I'll go ahead and post it. I'll edit and add a picture of Lily later.
PS - In case you are wondering, the background picture for this blog is my girl.
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