Where does an author’s journey begin? How do they get their start in the world of words and books? I put pen to the beginnings of my humble journey as a contribution to my friend, Candace West Posey’s blog last October.
Sunday School lesson folders from my childhood featured a colorful picture on the front depicting the Bible story for the week. The story and activities filled the inside and back of the single fold sheet. From the time I was three years old, Mom collected them each week. Two or three times each year she and I bound them into booklets. We repurposed (before that was a word) used gift boxes into covers, and bound them with colorful yarn ties. The sides of the box bent into perfect hinges for the cover. Early inspiration for creating books of my own.
I imagined riding a magic carpet through the skies, collecting stories to write. I dreamed a few that escaped by morning. I allowed myself to wander through my tumultuous childhood hoping to remember a few early and valiant attempts to put them on paper.
The very first piece published with my byline appeared in The Milford Herald News in March of 1959. I was seven years old. On a declutter junket a few months back, the clipping surfaced in a Brownie Scrapbook I kept all these years.
Cheers to the internet! I located and spoke with the current editor. She knew everyone in the article, and other mutual friends, acquaintances and teachers. In this small Illinois town of 1200 people, the newspaper has been in continuous publication for 126 years. A pretty cool legacy for a beginning writer.
This was Spring of 2nd Grade. We moved away before the school year ended. Someone new was assigned to write these bits about our troop.
Here’s one of the pictures we took. That’s me just below the bright green arrow.
I wrote stories and poems and bound them into booklets like my mother taught me with the Sunday School flyers. Eighteen different schools (K-12) and even more family moves later, they are long gone.
The ever-obscure dream remained, but I never believed a book would be published with my name on the cover. God had other plans.
The 3-volume Cinnamah-Brosia Coffee Cottage Inspirational Collection for Women wiggled its way out of my passion for essential oils and the discoveries I made of their Biblical connections. A push from writer friend, Johnnie Alexander, to attend a local writers’ conference when I felt I had nothing to bring to the table, and encouragement from devotional author Harriet Michael during that conference bolstered my confidence to bring the dream into print.
My current work in progress is historical women’s fiction based loosely on a very true snippet of my great grandmother’s story. It’s closer to completion everyday.
Devotional collection available from Amazon and through most booksellers (print and ebook formats). Here’s my author page on Amazon.
Copyright 2020, Lynn U. Watson