I have always loved to tell stories and write them. When I was four, I made up stories about four sisters who owned horses. Yeah, they had interesting names: Big Denise and Little Denise, Big Marsh and Little Marsh. No Marsha there, I don't know the whys or wherefores of how that name came to be. Denise was definitely for our landlord's oldest daughter because she owned a horse. A tall mahogany bay called Chico. The sister owned white animals. The Big sisters tall ones like Chico, and the Little sisters rode ponies. I would tell these stories to my little sisters and brother at night when we were supposed to be sleeping.

Like so many other writers, my characters live in my head, and they rarely are quiet. They aren't happy until their story is written. Often, they want to be in the next tale, too. They get their wish sometimes. I have the impulse to overlap genre as well if I think it will work. So some characters from my romances--under another pen name--will show up in a story for kids or YA and vice versa. I just want to keep my favorites alive as much as possible!
 
My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, was my motivation for writing. She read to us most afternoons. My imagination really began to spark when she started reading 1001 Arabian Nights to us. Besides writing my own tales of treasure caves, I did a few haunted house stories--I don't do those anymore--and a few horse stories, although not with the original four sisters.

Back then I included my classmates and family into what I wrote. I wasn't a popular kid, but my classmates all seemed to love being featured in a story. As soon as I had one written, Mrs. Miller let me read it to the class. I was actually a shy kid, yet I couldn't wait to read my latest story to them.

At the end of the year, I bound the stories between construction paper covers and gave them to Mrs. Miller. Never gave it a thought my mother might have liked to have kept them herself . . . But then, she helped me do the book up, so I guess she was okay with it. I wish she would've wanted copies . . . it'd be fun to recall what I wrote back then.
 
Me, I would have made copies of my kid's work and given the teacher the copy. The original is MINE! However, no teacher got anything they'd done. So I have the stories my kids wrote when they were young. I plan to post them on my site when I have the time. I also have some stories written by a favorite nephew when he was about 8 or 10.

In my teens, I wrote fan fiction novels and a historical novel set in the 1800s somewhere. About a young girl whose family is killed by Apaches. She's taken captive along with her younger brother. Hard to recall all the details now. She loved the life and trained with the boys to become a warrior. I remember that much. In any case, the story had an unhappy ending. I know, I know; but it just seemed it had to be that way. I would definitely end it differently now and she'd live a happy life within the tribe. Maybe someday I'll give a shot at a rewrite.

In high school, one of my English teachers, Miss Cassill, introduced me to Writer's Digest and The Writer. Told me she was trying to decide how to help me get to the next step with that story--Captive Tomboy I called it. Needed a good edit very likely, although I excelled at English all through school. School ended for the summer, but she kept my story.

And went back to Ohio . . .

I was pretty sad about that. I really liked her--plus now I would have to do the book over from scratch. Like I say, maybe someday I will attempt it.

Oh, before I gave it to Miss Cassill, I sent it to a publishing company. Which turned out to be a vanity press. They wanted $1795 to print it up. I forget how many copies I would get for that. But . . . a fourteen year old kid hasn't got that kind of money. They did do up a really cool blurb about the book, though. Now they would charge me probably $17,650+ to publish it. In this day and age, doing it myself is the way I chose to go.

I write a little poetry when the mood strikes me. I love writing novels and short stories best.

I have one book finished and published. Under the Paw The Incredible Whacky Air Hockey SHOWDOWN, which is available on Amazon as both an eBook and print. I have the eBook enrolled in KindleSelect. So the book is free to those who have KindleUnlimited memberships.

There are other novels and short stories in the wings. I have two more Kingsley Twin novels planned which I'm going to title Mystery of the Missing Malley and Dancing in the Rain with Gramma. Other works in progress are The Discipining of Mom a short YA novel, Stagecoach at the Old Gristmill, a middle grade time travel, and another YA novel called Marooned on Planet EARTH: A Tale of Two Diaries. Both YA novels are finished, just waiting for print book covers and one final edit. They will be coming out this year.

Writing in multiple genre is a juggling act! As I mentioned, I also write clean romances under the pen name Neenah Davis-Wilson and have an author page for those here as well. So check that page out for info on the romances.

Thanks so much for visiting my Den!