The Backstory of Outside ABCs

When persistence paid off

I am a rare author who grew up as a reluctant reader. To this day, my reading preference is for children’s literature, which is what I write. I remember enjoying theme-writing in my senior English class. There was something about writing on what I cared about that appealed to me. 

I also wrote a few poems in high school. A classmate challenged me to write a few stanzas on a poem she had started. That was fun, so I wrote a few more poems. Since my father taught science and English in high school, I showed him my poems. He pointed out so many things that were wrong with them that I decided writing poetry was too hard, and I would never write them.

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A dream come true

Today I signed a contract with Ambassador International for an alphabet book that germinated in my mind 45 years ago. It took that long to get all the wrinkles out of that pitiful first draft. LOL! The working title is Outside ABCs. Many thanks to people like Jon and Cathryn Sill who took the time to help me trim down my over-the-top first draft about 25 years ago, and to Crystal Bowman who encouraged and mentored me as we reworked many of the poems. I’ve also have many cheerleaders and critique groups who have encouraged me with this book.

Some of my prayer warrior friends came out on short notice to witness me signing the contract this morning.