I’m a writer. That is such a powerful sentence. Like many writers I never thought that it was something that I would be able to make a living at. Of course I wanted to and I of course dreamt that it would happen, but it when the stars faded and life set in I got comfortable in my day job. I was a secretary. I use to steal moments away and write short stories that didn’t really amount to much, rarely got finished, but writing I always did it for me.
When people ask me how I came up with On My Way Home it is such a personal question because it came from such a personal place. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and it was a scary time in my family, and I had to realize that when my mother’s life was being threatened I had not been the best daughter. I hadn’t always been the nicest to my mom. I took her for granted. Then there was this very real scary possibility that she would not be there for me to be mean to, and that time I wasted being angry over things that neither of us could control would never be regained. It would be the worst kind of regret.
In my early twenties when this took place my family lived a few hours away so daily trips were out of the question, but we managed to visit monthly. I tried to put on a brave face, and my mother did the same. It was the elephant in the room that no one talked about it. It was there, but it we refused to acknowledge it. After some time passed I got some news in October about my mother’s condition. If she didn’t start improving she would only have about a year left. There were steps that I needed to take to possibly take custody of my younger sister who was only eight. I felt like throwing up. I cried and cried. I was at work. There was nothing I could focus on. I felt like the worst possible thing had happened. I didn’t know how to deal with it. The next day I go some terrible news about my sister who was eighteen at that time about something terrible that had happened to her. I wasn’t there to hold her and tell her I had been there, and she could talk to me. The phone just wasn’t enough. That weekend it was the silliest of problems, but someone stole $500.00 from me, and from there on my life changed. I was broke and the people I loved the most were suffering and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I almost had a nervous breakdown. I decided that I needed to get some help from a therapist. She asked me what I did for myself and I said I write. I write. It was so simple and so natural. So I went home and I wrote. The very beginning of On My Way Home was born. Writing was much more effective than the actual therapy. I took deep breaths and pressed my pen to the paper and invented characters who were dealing with some of the same things that I was, and I felt better. The sky opened and our prayers were answered and my mother got better. She was clear and free of cancer. She did a 180. My sister is doing great. She was taking names and kicking butt. My life was great again. Everything was on the mend, but On My Way Home never strayed far from my mind.
A few years later I was working for a different company as an Office Manager. Stale career. Not many rewards. Not much writing, and then it clicked in my mind that I was the only one who could make my dreams come true. I could my dream a livable possibility. I had learned so much about loss, and how precious time is, and only to fall back into the same routine. I went home one night and Clare, Gabriella, Austin, Gemma, and Giuliana, and Jason came to me. It was the story that had stayed with me. It was the story I hadn’t told yet. The next day I wrote. I wrote like I never had before. The words were coming out of me like I was watching a movie in my mind. I cried when they cried. I laughed when they laughed. I put everything I am into On My Way Home. I finished it. I am so proud of my book.
My husband and I do everything that we can to make the book a success. We are thrilled about the future possibilities. We have gotten On My Way Home into a few handfuls of bookstores across the states. It’s an amazing feat! We launched last month in September, and we have sold over 5,000 copies of On My Way Home. I know that it is only the beginning. Thank you to everyone for the support it means the world!
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