List of books and upcoming books

Writing and personal experience

When I started writing, my mom gave me the best advice. She said write from personal experience. I didn't understand it then, but I do now.

She's also the one that came to me with a book idea to write about my dad and his brothers. I didn't know what to do with it until recently. Well about a year ago. Yes the Gray Brothers are hitting their one year anniversary on October 25th.

The one thing I do is pull from my own personal life when I write a story. Characters are based off people either in my family or people I know or knew.

This brings us to the parents. I grew up with parents still married up until the day my dad passed away. I watched as my mom took care of him that day. How she never flinched or said I couldn't do this. To me that showed unconditional and true love.

How at times my own husband wasn't being a good husband but I gave him unconditional love because that's what you do when you love someone. I also witnessed his own dynamics with his family.

I watched my neighbors, my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and saw how different dynamics were in every family. The one thing that stuck out the most was the humor aspect. There were a lot of funny moments that outweighed the bad.

I watched how people were imperfect, made mistakes but in the end they dealt with the situation.

I know as a parent I'm far from perfect and make mistakes but as my dad always said, "everything is a learning experience." He was right. No one knows my kid better than me and she thinks I'm pretty neat, well when I'm not acting like a goofball.

I wanted to write parents and grandparents realistic. That they all aren't perfect and make mistakes. Some are good and some are bad but this is reality.

The parents that are funny, likable and lovable are actually based off someone near and dear to my heart, my own parents. They weren't perfect by any means but they were mine. They gave me good morals, values, beliefs. They encouraged me and supported me. Most importantly they knew how to handle me and loved me even when I wasn't being lovable.

I apply the same concepts to my daughter and let me tell you, she is a pretty amazing kid but I'm a bit bias.

I couldn't ask for a better writing experience than my personal experience. It makes writing the stories mean so much more. Plus you all enjoy them, so they can't be that bad.