My Story

Background

My whole life has been spent in Minnesota, never straying far from my childhood home. I am the middle child and have always had a flair for storytelling and crafting imaginative worlds.

Even as a child, instead of having my mom read me bedtime stories, I would tell my own. In middle school, I discovered my love for writing short stories and poems. Thanks to the encouragement of my high school English teacher, Mrs. Colby, I was able to take her creative writing class.

After graduating, I briefly considered pursuing a career in writing novels. However, I struggled to make ends meet with low-paying jobs and often worked multiple at a time. Writing became a luxury that I could only indulge in when there was spare time, but it never seemed to go anywhere.

My life changed drastically when I discovered I was pregnant and my mother fell ill. It made me reevaluate my choices, and I realized that pursuing a career in writing wouldn't provide enough stability for myself and my child. So, I made the difficult decision to move back home and take care of my mother while attending college.

Choosing accounting as my major was a practical choice because it offered job security and regular working hours. As a single parent, having a work-life balance was crucial. Thanks to my education, my daughter and I have enjoyed a comfortable life for the past 25 years, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

In high school, my creative writing teacher gave me an assignment for a romantic short story, giving me complete freedom on what I wrote. I was struggling to focus on one particular story since I had so many ideas in my head. Inspiration struck me while on a class trip in southern Germany and I knew I wanted to write romance with a fantasy element. The only problem was thirty-five years ago it was unheard of and Romantasy wasn't a word yet. My teacher loved the concept and encouraged me to turn the short story into a novel.

I pitched the concept along with the first five chapters of the manuscript to several publishers around the United States. I was rejected by every single one stating, "No audience would ever be interested in reading a romance novel between a warrior goddess and a Minotaur." Heartbroken, the story sat unfinished, but I never forgot the characters or their story in my mind and heart. Thirty-five years later, I was going through a box of old pictures while moving and came across that castle in southern Germany, along with my original notes and rejection letters from publishers. I knew this story needed to be dusted off and told to the rest of the world the way it should have been.

What started as a six-page handwritten assignment turned into a six-book series I'm thankful I get to love and share.

Interests

Aside from writing, I also enjoy winning at cards and darts against my best friends. In the summers, you can find me on a boat and in the winters, I love snowmobiling - that's just how we do things in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes." My dogs are like my children and they never fail to entertain me.

Future

Writing has been a passion of mine since I can remember - publishing poems and novels has always been a dream of mine. After a successful 25-year career in accounting, I decided to take a leap of faith and pursue writing. For years, I kept this story inside, only sharing it with my loyal pup.

But now, I want to share this world that I've created with everyone. As my birthday approached this year, I realized that I'm getting close to the age my mother was when she was first diagnosed with an illness. Confronting your own mortality is never easy, but with my daughter all grown up now, I knew it was time for a change in focus. I wanted to finish this series that had been my life's work. I couldn't bear the thought of passing away before seeing it through.