See all “Words” posts, including writing tips, info on Ann’s novels, and more.

Ann’s Story

I love words. Always have. I actually started writing my first novel when I was in elementary school. It was about college students. I didn’t know anything about college students, so I quit after one chapter. But, it didn’t stop me from writing: stories, poems, lyrics…

As I grew up I took up piano, guitar and singing. Rarely did I go anywhere in my junior high through college years without a guitar in tow. I did plenty of performing in school concerts, with the Idaho State and All Northwest choirs, even toured with the Arizona State University choir at Disneyland, in Poland and Russia. Sometimes I actually put my words and music together and wrote some tunes, which I sang with friends, family, and around campfires and such as a member of ASU’s Outing Club. I even had a short stint as a duo singing around the Phoenix area for a couple of years. I always thought it would be amazing to record a CD of my own music, too, but never really did much about it.

As I became a young public relations professional, writing became one of my favorite endeavors. For a period of about 20 years I wrote, edited and designed handfuls of employee and client articles and publications every month. Even won a couple of awards. As an independent marketing consultant since 1996, I now write for vIDEAn Unlimited and clients primarily via e-newsletters, Web sites and blogging and other marketing and social media.

During all this time, my goal was still to become an author. So, a couple of years after becoming an entrepreneur, I asked a writer/marketing friend of mine to help jump-start that effort by becoming my critique partner. I’d actually put the first words on paper for Rhythms & Muse in 1987, but nearly forgot about it as I started and raised my family and focused on marketing and serving clients. Finally on a consistent meeting schedule with my critique partner, I made slow progress on my manuscript, learned about writing better fiction (which is WAY different that nonfiction), and explored the publishing process.

As the story took shape, I became inspired to develop a few of the songs my characters created and performed in the book. Using my music background and Apple’s savvy GarageBand software, I composed and recorded five original tunes.

Through years of learning, listening to my intuition, relying on resources at-hand, and taking small action steps, I have finally arrived at my goal. I have published:
• Rhythms & Muse, a contemporary women’s novel and a CD in 2011a fantasy • Book 1, in my Delfaerune Rhapsody fantasy fiction series, launched in 2014 with Song of the Ocarina
• Absolutely Wild! Enchanted Faerie Portals Coloring and Writing Pages, a coloring book with writing prompts published in 2016.
• A handful of ghostwritten books.

I cannot tell you how good this feels! And, I hope that I can inspire you, as a Book Shepherd, to follow and realize your own writing dreams.

I expect to create a village about words on this blog, and hope you’ll choose to be part of it. Let’s start the conversation with your story. What can you tell us about your writing, music, or other life-long dream? Please share.

– Ann