My Journey to Writing and Book Coaching
I come from a storyteller family who moved every year so we didn’t have many books in the house. It never occurred to me that I would ever write book. Instead, I dreamed of being an artist, one I realized in my 30s through education, mentors, and a lot of work.
Fifteen years ago, my need to understand my family and myself, the intertwining of past and present pushed my stories to the surface of my consciousness. This began my next creative journey to learn the skills I knew I would need. In addition to taking classes, attending conferences, and working with the best mentors, I joining with other writers to support one another and learn from one another.
But it wasn’t enough. Something was missing that I desperately needed but didn’t know where to turn or who to ask. So I asked everyone I met in the writing world, reading new how-to books, going to workshops and conferences trying everything and anything. I kept asking because I wasn’t going to quit until I discovered what I needed to move forward.
I found what I had been seeking in 2018 when I took my first Blueprint class with Jennie Nash. Working with Author Accelerator and her certified book coaches helped me plan and write two novels. To help me fix my memoir, I learned the Inside/Outline from Jennie Nash at the Writer’s Institute in Madison Wisconsin. Wanting more, I traveled to Winter Cove Maine in the fall of 2019 for a three-day writers’ retreat where she helped me focus and frame my memoir into one people would want to read.
I believed in Jennie Nash’s process to such an extent that I started her extensive book coach training program the following year.
As a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach, I can pass on what I have learned, to help you with your writing, whether you are: at the beginning, finding the shape of your story; trudging through the writing but stuck halfway through; deep in revision with a full manuscript; or ready to complete and publish your book. I’m not offering a prepackaged class that you never get through, but rather one-on-one support, helping you where you are at, giving you the tools you need to move forward.
So, no matter where you are in your writing process, I get it—the struggle, the doubt, the frustration, and the fear. And I can help you take the next step. Are you ready to get to work? Click here to learn more about book coaching.
My Journey to Creativity and Peace
My life growing up with two older brothers was filled with lots of adventure, but not stability. Our family moved every year, sometimes twice, crisscrossing the country. When I was a freshman in high school, Dad was transferred and moved Mom and me to Australia. There I learned to ride and, for a few precious months, owned my first horse. That brief glimpse of joy gave me a vision to pursue. Twenty-two years later, my dream of living with horses came true.
I married Greg and began art school in Indiana, completing my BFA in ceramics. When I learned my brother was sick, we moved to LA. I continued my love of art at UCLA, completing my MFA, commuting from our home in the high desert. With the help of surrounding Endurance community, we started our life with horses.
But life happens and we moved twice more, finally settling here in Northern Illinois with our five horses, three dogs and three cats. We live down a long lane surrounded by farmland with our nearest neighbor a mile away in any direction.
The beauty of nature all around us is my muse for my writing and my art. I photograph wind-sculpted snow and ice during the bitter winters, and vivid sunsets on my way to feed the horses.
Our first summer in Leaf River, Maggie was born, the only foaling of four that I that I was lucky to witness. As we watched her grow, we worked to restore our broken-down house and the ancient slumped-roofed barn on our twenty acres. In the backyard, we established a large garden where we grow vegetables.
On seven of our twenty acres, we raise hay and bale it for our horses. We mowed down the seven-foot-tall horsetail weeds around our house and planted hostas, irises, and lilies along with and a few dozen hardwood trees to shelter us and the wildlife from the increasingly fierce storms that march across the Midwest.
After losing the last of my family of origin in 2007, I began to write their stories and mine while continuing to paint, create art quilts, and sculpt clay in my garage studio. After two decades of living on this land with my husband and our horses, I know that I have finally found home. As we care for one another each day my spirit is uplifted, and my creativity is renewed.
However, in 2020, I had a major complication to a knee replacement revision surgery—infection. After five surgeries over four years to repair the damage to bone and muscle, my surgeon saved my leg.I spent over a year in a power wheelchair, but am now learning to walk again. I don’t yet know the full ramifications of the physical, emotional, and financial damage, but I’m determined to hang onto my sacred retreat here on the land with my horses and my brother’s ashes buried in the orchard.
If you want to learn more, sign up for my newsletter and follow me on social media. I’m still working on my art and my writing (two memoirs and two novels in various levels of revision) and plan to release my first memoir later this year, a story of tenacity and perseverance to live a creative life through a myriad of adventures while searching for a place to call home. When you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get monthly installments of my journey of writing to publishing and my life here in my creative retreat down the long lane. You can also sign up for shorter features on my Substack page. And watch for special events on my social media and in my email.
Note: I ONLY use my own images—artwork and photography—on this site and on my Substack page. They best reflect who I am, how I think, and feel. Creativity and nature are essential parts of my spirituality. It all braids together.
A caveat: I have taught my husband Greg to catch images like sunsets and flowers which are difficult for me to access in my wheelchair. Although I usually crop and manipulate the images, I want to give him creative credit for some of my recent photos. However, the art is all mine.
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