Birthdays

                Eleven years ago, I gave birth twice. I became a mother in March and a published author in April. My first book, The Secret Keeper, became a reality almost one month after my son, Wesley, was born. Needless to say, it was a dizzying spring that year, 2009.

                I had conceived the idea of a mystical being made of clouds when I was around the age of 13. I remember vividly standing in the field during softball practice one afternoon, where the balls never seemed to make it, and staring up at the Carolina blue sky spotted with clouds. The shapes of the clouds and the way they move across the sky have always been a source of fascination for me, but on this particular day, I began to wonder what if people existed inside those cottony white puffs. Once that thought entered my head, I could not shake it. I then spent the better part of my eighth-grade science class that year developing characters and writing up major scenes. (Don’t worry – I got an “A” in science. This was back in the day of book learning and seatwork.)

                Like all my stories, The Secret Keeper was written and then stored in a drawer somewhere. Over the years, I would pull it out, play with it, and then tuck it safely away. After all, my stories were really just for me and maybe my sister, who was very good about being interested.

                And then, one day many years later, my husband asked me what I planned on doing with my manuscripts. He encouraged me to publish one, so I selected The Secret Keeper and worked to polish her up. It just so happened that I was newly pregnant at this time, and there were moments where the revisions literally made me nauseous. Still, with a good many gingersnaps and ginger ales, I managed to make a publishable draft and off she went.

                I’ve learned a great many things about writing since the publication of my first book. Writing is like parenting—you’re going to make mistakes, and you’re going to look back at some of those mistakes and say to yourself, “If I had only done this differently…” The Secret Keeper is my first book, and yes, looking back on it, especially now that I am completing the final draft of the fourth and final book in the series, I can see where I should have done a few things differently. It is perhaps the roughest of my published works, but then again, I was young and had not yet learned all that I have since about writing. Nevertheless, it holds a special place in my heart, for it is the book that started me on this fantastic writing journey I have enjoyed for the last eleven years. It is the book that made me say, “I can do this,” just as my son has taught me that I can navigate parenting waters.

                So happy birthday to my Wesley and to The Secret Keeper. Springtime is, after all, the right time for new life, for rebirth, and for celebration.