Chapter 1 - A Beginning

Today I became a published author.
(Breathe in, breathe out.)

I have always considered myself a writer.  I love to write.  As I child I preferred writing to reading which seemed backwards to me.  I kept journals growing up, filled with my secrets and hopes and dreams.  I wrote stories and poems.  Writing was always an outlet.  When something was wrong or if I needed to get my point across or express my feelings to someone, I found that writing things down always helped.  It continues to be my go-to therapy, even to this day.

Somewhere along the way though, I stopped writing for enjoyment.  There was so much writing involved in school with term papers and essays that it started to become drudgery.  And so I stopped writing for many years. 

Then one day, I heard about this thing called 'blogging' and everyone was doing it.  It required writing and deep inside of me a little sleeping monster awoke.  I started writing about my family and my thoughts on day to day life, and I threw it out there, into the universe for the world to read.  Sometimes I would write about current events or politics.  I loved my little blog.  And along the way some other people did too.  People began commenting that I should write a book.  Over and over.  I kept hearing it.

What they didn't know was that I had already tried.  I started.  I stopped.  I restarted.  I deleted.  Over the years, I had tried repeatedly to get something going in the way of a novel.  Nothing ever materialized.  It was okay though, because I already had a full-time job.  I was a mom.

The next thing I knew, my baby headed off to kindergarten.  And suddenly, I could not longer claim that I was a full-time mom anymore.  

It was time to do something.  
Anything.
So I did the one thing I've always wanted to do.

I wrote a book.

I hope you like it.  It's not really my story.  It's Brooke's story.  And I think it was one that was worth telling.  And I hope you think it is one that is worth reading.

Thanks for stopping in...