The Books that Choose Us

Anyone who writes will tell you that they've all had at least one project that chose them, rather than them choosing it. It's generally a project of some importance to the writer and may or may not get the attention and respect it deserves in the market, but the author feels forever changed for having completed it.

As I look back on the things I've chosen to write, or the things that have been chosen to be written by me, I can see how each project has not only been a reflection of who I was when I wrote it, but how each project shaped me. Each book taught me and made me grow, sometimes painfully but always for the better.

When I first started writing, my main area of interest was historical fiction. My first two books were historical and they each took a lot of research, which left me feeling drained and not quite whole. When my next book idea came, I was rather shocked to discover that it was a contemporary mystery. Wasn't I a historical fiction author? Would I be denying my true self if I veered off my path and wrote something so different? But it was a book I needed to write. My first book included the bombing of Pearl Harbor and then the victims of the atomic bomb. My second book involved the Nazi concentration camps. The books only reflect the smallest amount of the research I did, and the pictures I saw and the accounts I read drained me of my inner joy -- I had to write something light in order to restore my internal balance. So I wrote that contemporary mystery, called it "Faith Beyond Fear," and am currently awaiting word from a publisher on its status.

Right now I'm working on a new series of comedic mysteries about elderly ladies who fancy themselves amateur detectives. This series also chose me. I needed something that would make me laugh. I needed to rediscover the joy of writing, of using words for words' sake. This series has been a blessing in my life, giving me a good chuckle as I sit down at the computer every day to see what those crazy ladies are up to now.

Have I turned my back on my historical fiction roots? No -- I've still got some great ideas for historicals to write in the future. But for right now, just this minute, I'm writing what I most need to write, and I hope that my stories will touch my readers as much as they've touched me.