Knowing me as a writer and author is like cracking an egg’s shell in the air and wondering how far the splatter will spread. Wait, that’s kind of like knowing me as a person. I’m like all over the board and always working on three to five projects at a time. I have no favorite spots to work and my view tends to be pointed at the keyboard. When an idea comes into my head I just flow with it. I haven’t been able to conform my writing to any specific pattern. I am more than often working on one story and the characters from another will just be dying to get my attention and I have to go into their world.

I tend to write in various genres from fiction to picture books. Using pen  (same one for the past eleven years) and paper, laptop and as a newly favorite the word program on my cell phone. I have found I can write anywhere with that little contraption and my focus is intent. Has to be with those tiny keys, right? And then I just email to myself and copy past into my manuscript.

Before becoming a self-published author I followed the rules. Wrote outlines, character back stories, did the word counting, queries and everything. I even had an agent once. Unfortunately he was a horrible choice. Directed me away from Ballantine books (wish I would have known who they were then) who wanted The Perfect Solution and straight into the corrupt hands of Publish America. What a crock. After that fiasco I was so humiliated I couldn’t write. Fought and had my rights returned and now, I am back. I tried the querying again, but became frustrated when it seems the agents’ rules are so varied, too confusing for me. Not to mention the rejection letters can be soul crushing. I received a lot of positive reviews for The Perfect Solution when it was first published and yet when I began querying one agent informed me no one would like the book and yet it deals with negligence in the child care system.  So, off I ran on my own. I have recently put three novels, three picture books and a creative non-fiction book into the Amazon and Smashwords systems. I think e-publishing is one of the greatest inventions God has given to the world. I would advise any author to go that route when they have something they feel strongly about. 

Oh, and to let you know I do have a stable life…I am the (always single) mother of three daughters who are all grown now, 27, 25, and nearly 20 years old and I home schooled them on a string and a prayer. Though it may seem as if I am a bit scattered brained I was able to school them into college by the age of seventeen and sixteen. The two eldest have graduated, yeah!  I am the drooling proud ‘Lovey’ of a baby boy named Jett Parker Ellington. Before being destroyed by Hurricane Ike, I lived in a nice home and owned a home-based childcare center and that’s me and my writing life in a nutshell.

Kindle, Smashwords , Sony or Kobo, Scribed
Nook and iPad here & here.