About me:

I'm a stay at home mom with three kids, a dog and an active imagination. Born in 1974, I live in Alaska, land of the midnight sun. I'm married to my high school sweetheart, John, who is known to bring me flowers "just because".

My leisure time is filled with gardening, crochet, knitting, sewing, art and reading.

Me on a recent trip to Anchorage. We're in Denali Park, just outside of Cantwell. No, I'm not trying to look sexy--I was shoving my messy hair out of my face (it is a 6 hour drive from Fairbanks). Nice scenery, though.

 

2008 Notes

Hang onto your hat, Toto, because I have a tale for you!

You might have read that I've been working on a novel called The Translator. Well, I finished it, and Dorchester Publishing bought it. I now have a two book contract with them with the first coming out late in the year. I'm just finishing up the edits, so I'll have more info later.

It's been an amazing (stressful), wonderful month. My husband went to Venezuela for a month on Guard business, so my kids promptly gave me pink-eye. After that they shared a horrible chest cold: I don't think I breathed for two weeks. But after that Dorchester Publishing called and told me they liked my partial, could I send the full?

The kids were getting ready for school and there was all this noise in the background. I wasn't even awake yet, and here was a publisher calling. Stuff like this just doesn't happen to me in the morning, especially since I'd just sent the partial out a month ago. I was braced to add to my rejection slip database, not to actually speak to a body. That's like calling your bank and actually getting a live person. When does that ever happen?

Anyway, I sent the book in and they liked it. Now I had a problem--I'd sent the manuscript into multiple pubs and hadn't heard back from them yet. Worried, I emailed a writing acquaintance of mine and asked for advice. She emailed back and told me, "get an agent".

Yikes! More chances for rejection? I sucked it up and called, and danged if I didn't get the first lady I called to represent me. The thing was, she came from an agency that I thought I'd never have a chance with, but my adviser told me to "start with my dream agent and work down". Good advice!

I think I'm still dazed from it all.

So what is this book that broke me into the big house? Originally called The Translator, we've retitled it to, No Words Alone. It comes out at Christmas 2008.

~

2007 notes

It's been an interesting year. I apologize to readers for not keeping up my web site. One reason is I'd fighting a clunky dial up that barely let me on long enough to check my email. I could only stand reconnecting about five times or less before I growled and stalked off. Happily, this problem has now been fixed.

We We built a sunroom/office for me this summer that has greatly solved my winter blues (even the sun flies south in Alaska. Four hours a day of sun in December can kill a gal. We have had an exceptionally mild winter, though.) I now have 10 beautiful southern facing windows that let me see the sunrise and a heated tile floor. Oh, heaven!

The good news is thanks to all the hours I put in helping our carpenter I can now use a drill, sheet rock, mud and lay tile. The bad news is all that massive lifting wreaked my back twice and messed up my wrists for months. I was in the ER once for back spasms--couldn't figure out what the heck was going on, 'cause it feels like a heart attack. The drugs they gave me worked, but can't stay doped up with little kids around, so I went in and had a deep tissue massage. It fixed that go around. I later figured out that ripping the carpet out had caused it--I think I was yanking too enthusiastically. I mowed the sloped lawn after that, which might have sealed the damage.

I couldn't type or chop veggies for dinner without pain after the tile. I had a talk and type program, but it was like training a puppy--a messy, rather slow operation. The upside is that I finally went in and had a deep tissue massage. The lady worked on the muscles under my pinkies, along the outside of my forearms and into my shoulders and back. It felt better right away and continued to improve for the next two weeks. Today I'm typing pain free and plan to get a massage more often. Talk about value for money! Everyone who uses a computer should spring for one of these.

Take care of yourself!

Autumn Dawn