Born in the Midwest, I was a child of the 1970s. Donna Summer was my favorite singer and I remember when Debby Boone sang "You Light Up My Life" at the Grammy Awards in 1978. The downturn of the steel industry took my family to upstate New York when I was twelve. There, I learned the techniques of how to properly shovel a driveway, how to drive in a blizzard, and how real Buffalo Chicken Wings taste. I grew into a pretty good violist and tried my hand at writing teenage love songs on the piano.
English was the only major I could foresee. Books like "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" ,"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", and many others whose titles I forget, but whose plots impressed my soul, made becoming a writer, a dream worth pursuing.
I remember the second book that I wrote. I was fourteen and had read a compelling story about a young girl's journey in the segregated South. I began to wonder, "What would my story be?" I began to write a book about a young girl that was not too autobiographical, but certainly picked up on the theme of identity that I was dealing with at the time. I was not a Christian yet, but there was something about Jesus that had fascinated me since I was five years old. So I began my book with the first stanza of the hymn, Blessed Assurance. "This is my story, this is my song; praising my Savior, all the day long". The book only got to be about five pages long.
My real story took me from Rochester to Virginia to attend college, to meet my husband Doug and to begin my family. More than two decades later, I've become an indie author and an amateur home designer. Check out my blog about our home renovation:
Because of the expansive age range of our six children, when my youngest is eighteen, I will have been a home educator for thirty-six years. I'm sure you'll read snippets about this experience from time to time on this blog.
I guess I'm no longer a Northerner (yikes!) and I confess that I now call pop, soda. Marriage and motherhood are integral to being the person I have become. I love being a sports mom. I absolutely love to cook and I'm a budding gardener as of this summer. Music is still like the air I breathe and forever will be. It's in my genes. So as I summarize for you who I am...I'll conclude with this. My identity is not in who I am, but Whose I am and because of Him, who I have become.
Feel free to send questions or feedback to: beforethebeginning1@gmail.com.
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