I have been writing since I could hold a pencil and reading became my favorite passion the moment I was able to pronounce the word “book.” The torn and tattered pages of my Black Beauty copy gave me the inspiration for the hundreds of horse stories I penned on paper and shoved in dresser drawers. I kept my first diary with the little gold key safely hidden from my big brother!

In my teens I began to journal, and then my world fell apart. My parents divorced, my brother enlisted in the Navy, and this is when pebbles (trials) started to pepper my path, my journey into adulthood.

I married, birthed two beautiful children, a boy and girl, and once again my world fell apart. Circumstances beyond my control put me in a position of moving on as a single mother. I pushed aside any faith in a God I had known in my childhood. Pebbles turned into rocks, into boulders and an occasional avalanche pushed me even further from God, whom I knew deep in my heart tried to reach out to me. All this time I continued to journal.

My son and daughter finished college, lived in Texas and began their journeys in life. Only in my forties, I felt like a worn out shoe; certainly the toes of my shoes felt bruised from kicking pebbles of pain from my path. Then I met Ray.

Ray and I became close friends first and even though both of us sported an attitude that “we would NEVER marry again,” we tied the knot in 1986. Then, in 1987 I delivered a one-pound nine-ounce baby girl. This avalanche literally pushed me off my feet. Amazingly, it brought me back into God’s fold. He stretched His loving arms toward me, sometimes, me fighting Him all the way, and I have never looked back.

Our micro-preemie survived three months in intensive care, and grew up to be a beautiful, talented woman and adored sister.

Me? I found a relationship with Christ, a church family, a ‘tribe’ of friends and a writers critique group called Northern Arizona Word Weavers, a chapter of Word Weavers International. With encouragement and direction from the likes of my mentor, Joy Gage and the Jerry Jenkins Guild, my stories have come to life. Completing my recently published “Pebbles In My Way” novel has been an “aha” moment in my life. My memoir sat in one of those dresser drawers and when a well-known agent told me, “Since you’re not an Oprah, you need to fictionalize this in order to get your testimony read,” I decided to give it a try.

I pray my stories bring a smile, a tear and a belly laugh to all who read them. Most of all, I pray they bring hope and understanding to someone in need of a Savior.