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In elementary school, third grade I think, I wrote a book as part of a class assignment. It had a cardboard cover, the pages were typed and the illustrations were done in my seven-year-old hand. The title: The Case of the Missing Jewels. The main character was my stuff rabbit Whitey.

I won an award through the school district for that book and it was then that I realized I could share what was in my head with others. Later, in University, I majored in Economics but that’s pretty dry material, so I started writing daily tales that starred my friends. They were silly and fun and each ended in a moral, something profound like: Never eat a pickle in cowboy boots unless you’re walking backwards. By the time I graduated, I had quite a following.

My dream has always been to write: to lose myself in the world of my creating. After University, while working in Corporate America, I wrote novel after novel, many finished—far too many unfinished—and I tried to get them published the old-fashioned way: query letters to literary agents with no luck. My husband encouraged me to go the ebook route but it had always been a dream to get that box of books: the first off the presses.

In 2012, I relented and published six of my books on Amazon as ebooks. It was really more a lesson for my kids to go after their dreams; to teach them by doing and not just saying. I really never thought any of my stories would take off and so I was taken completely by surprise at the success of Beautifully Damaged. In the Spring of 2013, I got the call I had been dreaming about getting since my first novel back in 1993: a publishing house was interested in Beautifully Damaged and the sequel. This past February, I got that box. I was really sick with the flu, but I watched as my husband opened the box and just seeing my book looking back at me, I’ll never forget it.

I can’t even begin to tell you what it feels like to be living my dream. I wouldn’t be here if not for the fans of Beautifully Damaged, so thank you for helping to make my dream come true.