She writes what? The tale of a woman who writes more than one genre

A chance to win a fun, fairytale retelling YA book

When I was very young – like around ten years old young – a woman prophesied over me and said I would “know a little bit about a lot of things.” My parents and I didn’t ask for me to be prophesied over – the woman stopped as she was talking, touched my head, said what she said, and moved on. I really don’t remember it very clearly, other than her placing her hands on my head, but it’s part of my lore, I suppose you’d say. My mom shared this with me a couple of times as I grew up, and to be honest, none of us knew what it meant really. I mean, other people probably were told things like, “You will preach to all the nations” or “You will change lives” or “There is success in your future that God hath ordained for you.”

I got, “She will know a little bit about a lot of things.”

 I didn’t know what that meant at all.

Flash forward many years and I had gone to college for my chosen field – journalism. I was offered a job at the local newspaper near me before I even got the degree. I accepted the job and still got the degree. Just a note – not a good idea to work 40 plus hours a week and also commute an hour and a half one to college twice a week. No wonder I developed health issues later. I destroyed my adrenal glands then later my thyroid in that year and the years after by working 50-60 hour weeks for very little pay. But I digress.

When you work at a small-town newspaper you have to cover a lot of different events and interview a ton of different people.  Sometimes you also have to juggle a couple of different roles. For example, I was a reporter, but I often also took my own photographs and there were also days I had to answer the phones, copy edit articles, type up police briefs, and a few times I even had to cover sporting events. Eek.

I never knew from day to day what I would be covering or who I’d meet.  Sometimes I’d cover a simple municipal meeting. On other days I was interviewing a World War II veteran who had experienced D-Day or Normandy. I was in the audience for a speech by a former president, interviewed a U.S. Senator and a U.S. congressman and often interviewed state senators and representatives. I met William Shatner at one point, qualified for my second weapon while writing a story about how members of law enforcement qualify for their weapons. I was threatened by the family of a murderer, covered two murder trials, and attended a multitude of fires and car accidents and other emergency incidents. Later I typed up society news and obits, my reporting duties were reduced so I could have more of a daytime shift and be home with my son at night since my husband was the editor of the paper I worked at and needed to work the night shift.

During all that time – 14 years working at four different newspapers — I never really thought about what that woman had said all those years earlier. It wasn’t until I left newspapers to raise my son that I started to reflect on how I had never become an expert in any of the subjects of the stories I had covered but I had learned a little bit about a lot of those subjects.

I really did know a little bit about a lot of things.

Cue the chills for me.

Wow.

So now I am writing fiction and incorporating some of what I have learned over the years into my fiction stories. I’m also not sticking to one genre, much like I didn’t stick to one aspect of my job with newspapers. I had different jobs at the newspapers I worked at and I feel like it set me up for a life of being able to balance different jobs and interests later in life too. Working for newspapers also taught me how to work on deadlines and how to write with a lot of noise around me. I still have not perfected that whole writing with a lot of noise around me thing, however. I would still prefer quiet when I write or at least some jazz playing lightly in the background.

My first books were romance and general or women’s fiction under the Christian Fiction genre.

This next series will have some of those elements but will be listed under cozy mysteries.

All this is to say that I hope all of you, as readers, will follow me through my different genres but always see a thread of similar elements in my stories no matter which genre my book is in.

I plan to always write loveable characters living in small towns and surrounded by equally loveable, sometimes quirky, side characters.

I hope you’ll follow this fun, sometimes meandering, road with me.

This month’s question:

Graphic:

I’d love to know – do you read several genres? If so, which ones and which authors are your favorites?

This month’s book recommendation:

The Regal Pink by Jenny Knipfer

I am recommending this book even though I am not yet finished with it because I am enjoying it so much so far.

Description:

Far, far away, in the fairy tale kingdom of Evermoor, young, gifted Daniel dreams of escaping his life in captivity and his dastardly Uncle Aldrich. Diana, a flower fairy charged with guiding Daniel, helps him channel his ability to grant wishes, but his uncle exploits Daniel's gift, stealing the wishes for himself.

Warned not to fall prey to mortal love, Diana keeps a friendly distance from Daniel, but she cannot deny her growing feelings for him. Will she shield her heart or risk losing the chance to ever go back home to the Green Glade and gain her fairy wings?

In the same kingdom, childless King Roderick and Queen Rosalind have become divided by a great sorrow. Battling the wounds of the past, the monarchs make a valiant effort to move forward, but can they learn to trust each other again? What future can the kingdom have without an heir?

Readers of fantasy, Christian fantasy, fairy tale romance, and YA fantasy will be enraptured with this gripping tale of overcoming the past and embracing hope, layered with romance for both the young and the young at heart.

My impressions so far:

This is not my usual genre to read, but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

The book has four points of view but Jenny slides back and forth with them seamlessly and with labels for each chapter, so you know who you are hearing from.

This is an enchanting story of loss and hurts and hope and I am anxious to see how it all ends. I’m quite attached to the characters already.

You can pick up a copy of it here:

Pre-order Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing

The first book in my first cozy mystery series releases July 18th. You can pre-order it on Amazon, but if you would like to be an ARC reader you can do so by signing up HERE.

Description:

A little bit of mystery, a dash of romance, and a whole lot of heart

After being laid off from her job as a librarian at a small college, Gladwynn Grant isn’t sure what her next step in life is. When a job as a small-town newspaper reporter opens up in the town her grandmother Lucinda Grant lives in, she decides to take it to get away from a lot of things – Bennett Steele for one.

Lucinda has been living alone since Gladwynn’s grandfather passed away six years ago and she isn’t a take-it-easy, rock-on-your-front-porch kind of grandma. She’s always on the go and lately, she’s been on the go with a man who Gladwynn doesn’t know.

Gladwynn thought Brookstone was a small, quiet town, but within a few days of being there, she has to rethink that notion. Someone has cut the bank loan officer’s brakes, threatening letters are being sent, and memories of a jewelry theft from the 1990s have everyone looking at the cold case again.

And what, if anything, will Gladwynn uncover about her new hometown and her grandmother’s new male friend? And what will she do about her grandmother’s attempt to set her up with the handsome Pastor Luke Callahan?

To close out this month’s newsletter I’d love to offer one reader an ebook or print copy of The Regal Pink. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered into the giveaway!

I’ll announce a winner at the end of June.