The Beginning

I began writing Brute Heart about fifteen years ago. I was helping my husband with his business back then and often found myself with extra time on my hands. I have always enjoyed writing. I was one of the few kids in college who glowed rather than groaned when discovering a requirement of the course was to write a paper.

Professional writers always say, "Write what you know," so I began writing about some of my childhood experiences, then family stories I had heard over the years, some of them MANY times. I have been an animal lover all my life, so I wrote little snippets about family pets or animals in general. Later I added stories from my husband's growing up years, much more interesting than mine by the way, and I began to see the beginnings of a coming of age story.

Assisted suicide/Oregon's "Death With Dignity" act was a hot topic during the nineties, and for some reason it fascinated me. The more I read, the more I wanted to write about it. Eventually I wove dealing with terminal illness into my ramblings to create what might be called a "patchwork novel" with a compelling story.

Brute Heart has gone through countless, and I mean countless, revisions. Years went by when I didn't write a word or change a comma, then I would come across an interesting newspaper article or hear a funny story and I would be off and writing again. As of this post, I am nearing the end of my journey and if you are interested, come with me as I go through the process of self-publishing my first novel. I truly believe there is a book in every one of us, and you might just be inspired to write yours.