I Just LOVE Writing...

Funny how my life has turned upside down since last year. That was when I wrote my first children's book. Well, any book for that matter. That was when I took a stand and said, I am a writer.
At 37 years old, I am a writer!

I was one of those early self-taught readers before I was four. I loved books! I read and read and read, until I started school. It took years before the school system caught up with my love of reading! And when they did, they EXPECTED me to read.

Sad to say, it didn't take long before I hated reading... somewhere around 3rd grade. I remember it because it was when I transfered my love of reading other's stories to writing my own. I started a journal, no... in 3rd grade it's a Diary... Dear Diary... and like a lot of my friends, I was a faithful writer, most of the time.

By the time I was a senior in high school, my English teacher told me lots of kudos about my writing. He told me to take creative writing in college, that somehow he thought I might find my life in writing. I thought about it... and I wrote all about it in my diary.

Then I started the big college classes. I kind of laugh while I still feel nausea in the pit of my stomach when I think about what happened in my first Shakespearean English Freshman College Class. After turning in my first fabulous creative paper, my teacher gave me my first "C" in English I had ever received in my entire life!

When I asked her about it, she said I had a low level understanding of the English language, that I had no grasp of how to write a real paper.

I heard simply, "I am not a writer." It may seem unbelievable to you, but that was it. I lost interest in school, I lost interest in becoming a writer, at least that is what I wrote in my diary...

After many colleges and dropouts later, I finally finished school in Community Studies at UCSC. Some crazy hippie inspired major to teach kids how to organize the people for change. I became a waitress instead..

Years go by and I wrote all about it in my diary, or journal I should say at this point. Next, I met my husband. There were a few years my diary and my soon-to-be-husband tried to work it out, but passion won over and I found it was best to stop writing in a childish diary... and move on.

I was 27 and had written in over 15 diaries about my life since 3rd grade.

Life went on. I had my sweet babies, got married, bought and sold houses and then I was introduced to the most fabulous invention in the world.

A Blog! We were about to take a 7 month trip around the US in a Eurovan with my family after selling our home and everything we owned and I thought. Hmmmm.... Maybe people will be interested...

I began writing again! Right from the beginning it soothed my soul. It brought out my best. It made me feel whole. I loved it, and best of all, people started following it. They were commenting on my writing style. They told me they loved the feelings I brought to my stories and I should be a writer. Of course, I laughed and thought about my freshman English teacher and said, "Yeah! Right!"

Once our trip had ended, we returned to my family's home (as we had none of our own) so that I could recover from a serious illness. 3 days later, I sat down with my computer and before I knew it... in just 15 minutes... I had written a children's book.

One year and a couple of months later, that book is coming out in just a week or two from the printers. While the book was being produced, I have written tons of articles, started a magazine, which I also edit, write weekly blogs, and now get paid to be an editor for other writer's work.

I just LOVE writing... Of course, I love it! And most of all, I love encouraging others to believe in their stories... to believe in their writing, and BELIEVE in themselves.

smiles and joy,
Rain

Dedicated to my 8th grade English teacher, wherever you are.
You were RIGHT!