New blog, new book

I'm back in the saddle, writing that is. I've been at this for a while now. It started when I was fifteen, in the same way many of my books have started, I was emotional, moody, and most of all pissed off. I had just found out I was adopted, a secret my family kept for fifteen years, and would have kept longer if not for my Nancy Drew-like tendencies.

I was mad about being left in the dark, but it helped me discover something that would grow into a passion and an obsession. I started writing my first novel, about a grown woman who finds out she was adopted and suddenly doesn't feel like she knows herself anymore. It was a way of exploring emotions for me and the journey that my first heroine, Natalie, went through was a surprise to me as I wrote it. Each page the story just took me where it was supposed to go. That novel called Soul Searching in Cockle Bay because of an obsession I had with Australia at the time, now exists only as a printed Word document in my closet. 

It's not the most polished or beautiful thing, but it was a start, and everything I've written - even the hundred or more first pages I've written when I thought I had an idea and couldn't take it anywhere - have helped. They were an exercise in the craft, and they helped me learn.

I took a long break from writing, when life became busy, but I never took a break from reading. My grandmother passed on a great love of books to me, and the books we exchanged and the hours I spent browsing Barnes and Noble have made me love the feel of an actual book in my hands. 

But, I like to keep an open mind, so when I got a Kindle as a Mother's Day gift last year I thought I would use it. I really had good intentions, but it was a strange new-fangled thing and I couldn't figure it out. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not very tech-savvy. Eventually I read a book on the Kindle - Twilight of all things. I liked the book and the Kindle, so this year for Mother's Day, my wonderful partner, Chad, gave me a Kindle Fire HD. I'm obsessed with it, and he is amazed at the size of my Kindle library. 

My love of Kindle doesn't end with the device itself, I love Amazon. It's an amazing company that can receive an order for a baby carrier on Monday morning and have it at your door step Tuesday afternoon, and with a smile on the box! 

The point? I've started writing again, thanks in great part to Chad's support and encouragement. I'm working on a new book (you'll be glad it's not the ramblings of my fifteen-year old self) and it will be available on Kindle this summer. I will update as I go along and I hope you will check it out when it's available!