A Narrative about my Work and Experiences

 

I'm a language nut and don't think a person can ever be too versed in language. I'm a farm girl at heart, but I'm often stuck in places away from nature and frequent state parks quite a bit. I enjoy hiking, biking, and being around all kinds of animals.

I've taken a lengthy, unplanned break from publishing the past few years, but you can expect the next Merely Mortal book this summer! Besides that, I've had many other non-fiction pieces in the works for years, but I have yet to publish them. I've experienced a lot of life since the last time I've published anything and I apologize if you've been wondering about me -- but you connect with me or follow me on Goodreads (see the ONLINE tab for links!)

Pieces was my debut novel more than a decade ago now and is the first of what I plan on being a multi-millenia series following characters who make mistakes, who struggle yet survive, and who have joys that they remember from one lifetime to another. Pieces sets the scene for the rest of the series and tells the stories of a few lost souls who are desperately trying to find their own ways -- but all of the novels in the series will be stand-alone (though they will be much more when all taken together).

I wrote Pieces over the course of about a decade and it embodies my growth as a writer and the progression of my writing style until I began the Susie Chapman series of short stories (which is now a novella).

Pieces began as a fantasy, a way to supernaturally explain my panic and anxiety attacks as an adolescent, which I didn't know what were then. In high school, I began a psychological thriller/romance because I got tired of consistently editing and revising "The First and the Last Symptom," which was the very beginning of the book. Shortly after I began the second work, I chose to combine them, simply because I wasn't sure how I was going to do so -- I've always liked a challenge. Before it was ever published, it was already 9 years old. I've thought a few times to unpublish or discontinue it, but it's so much a part of me that I cannot. Keep in mind that my writing has become much different in recent years and may be much more appealing than what is found in my first novel.

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I have a short novella (as previously mentioned) which was originally a short story series. I originally released each short-story installment one at a time bi-monthly from November 2012 to around September 2013. It was first inspired by a dream but grew into a high school drama about a girl named Susie Chapman, who mysteriously disappeared and is never seen again. Each short story installment is told by a different narrator, all of whom are students at Susie's high school or people who otherwise knew her. All eighteen short-story installments were altered slightly and made into a short novella after the last installment's release; it is now entitled Susie. It has been suggested to me to write the story from Susie's point of view, but I cannot promise that will ever ever happen -- though I have considered it and may return to reconsider it again in the future. If you would like to see such happen, drop me a line and let me know. -- Update: I'm now working on a young-adult mystery novel from Susie's sister Sarah's perspective! (Sarah is narrator #18 in the novella.)

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I also have a nonfiction short story series in the works, entitled Mr. Farmer's Adventures. It began as stories shared in my meetings with the narrator, and he has agreed to my publishing them, as long as I don't put his name to them. I've enjoyed them for years, and I hope my readers will enjoy them, too. I've tried to keep the vernacular of "Mr. Farmer" in the stories, and I've italicized words and phrases where his intonations rise or he gets excited -- to try and make the writing resemble his storytelling as much as possible. And, I hope this brings more life to the work, so that they read like they sound and seem as real as they once were.

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My release, My Heart and Soul Laid Bare: A Short Works Collection, is also available for purchase. To learn more about it, visit it's page via the WORKS tab drop-down menu.

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Since 2013, I have experienced many difficulties in life and have been tossed in life's storms over and again in various ways. There are many lengthy works that I have been writing in the past decade -- non-fiction and fiction -- and the next to be published is the fiction addition to the Merely Mortal books: The Other Way. I have very much enjoyed working on this novel, creating the Tebawa society, their language, their relationships with one another... I know that it is much better work than my previous works, as I have grown in many ways and so has my writing. I have developed more, expanded my mind more, and experienced so, so much more. As a result of my life experiences, my characters are even more complex and developed than before. The storylines of my newer writings are much more complex and interesting, too. I no longer feel I have to hold back because of the people around me -- and my writing benefits from my lack of inhibitions. I WILL WRITE WHAT HAPPENS, and no longer filter it because I feel like I will be judged for what I put in my writing. My muse is no longer bound. My characters will suffer more harshly, because that is the way of the world; they will feel more deeply, because I have felt a greater, life-altering love; they will act as real people do, regardless of how they will be judged or how I may be judged for them. I have now been influenced by fiction such as Game of Thrones -- a so well-written storyline with such complex characters that no one can deny that the author is a master of writing. I have now been influenced by the varying careers I have taken on, as I have worked with wolves, with sheep, and with foxes and geese. I have now been influenced by the experiences of others, too -- I've known closely people who've experienced death, shock, stalking, rape, attempted murder, psychosis -- and I've experienced some of those things with them and on my own. My fiction will be much more hearty and much more well-written than my earlier works, and you will not be disappointed in the vibrancy of the new stories being told as I publish new work. 

 

To learn more about my works, visit the WORKS tab at the top of this page. To find me other places online, visit the ONLINE tab, and to contact me, visit the CONTACT tab and leave me a message. Thank you for taking the time to visit my website!

 

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