I’ve often been asked how I became an author and why I like to write. The truth is from early on, I discovered that I could express myself better through the written word than I ever could verbally. If you want to know more about me, read my words, because it’s on paper that I am more inclined to reveal my deepest emotions, thoughts, and feelings more so than I ever would verbally.

I am not the type of writer, like Louis L’Amour, who could sit down on a busy street corner and whip out a book in an afternoon. How I wish! I didn’t gain my writing ability through courses in college, nor was I inspired by any one author. That might be sad to say, but it’s true. I write when I’m moved, and my writing comes straight from my heart and soul. Over the years, my writings were mostly letters, poems, journals, and, later, newspaper articles about our life in the wilderness.

So how did I manage to publish a book? It is only by the Grace of God and my dearly departed mother that I have become the author I am today. Oh, sure, my husband had a big hand in it too. But first and foremost, my mother had the biggest influence in my writing. She was my number one fan, my cheerleader, and she pushed and urged me to write, write, write. She was relentless, even to her dying day. And it was on her death bed that I promised to write my story.

Before I wrote my debut Christian historical fiction, Loving Beth, I wrote two non-fiction memoirs about our life in the Alaskan wilderness. It started when my mother convinced me to write newspaper articles for my hometown newspaper back in Minnesota, which turned out to be popular with the local residents. I knew the life we were living on an isolated island in a huge glacier-fed lake in Alaska was unique. Not something most people would even attempt. I would often catch myself thinking, “Who does this?” It was quite challenging with many trials in the beginning, but I also knew that we were doing something special. So did my mother. My letters back home turned into journals, since sometimes I couldn’t get to town as the lake and the weather ruled our coming and going.

I was a homesick young woman when, two years into our wilderness life, I had the opportunity to fly home and visit my family. At the end of our visit as I was getting ready to fly back to Alaska, my mother handed me all the letters I had sent her and dad over the last two years. They were bundled up in a ribbon, and she handed them to me with the words, “For the book you’ll write one day.” Oh, how that woman believed in me!

As I said previously, even to her dying day, she urged me to write my story. I promised I would, and I finally did. I’m sorry she couldn’t live to see it happen.

The letters I sent mom and dad were such a great source of information for my first book. It was all there, because I told my parents everything in the letters. Some of them were twenty pages long. It helped me to write my first memoir, Winds of Skilak: A Tale of True Grit, True Love and Survival in the Alaskan Wilderness. I’m ashamed to say it took me ten years to write that first book. Since then, I have written two more books, and I am relieved to say it didn’t take nearly as long.

To a huge extent, I attribute my writing skills to my husband. It was his dream that took us to Alaska, which, of course, became my dream too. I had always enjoyed reading, but when you live completely off-grid in the age before cell phones, our main entertainment on those long cold nights was reading. We read many hundreds of books over the nearly ten years we lived on the island. Sometimes we could read a book a night (that’s how long the nights could be in Alaska during the winter). Reading, reading, and more reading enabled my writing skills. That, and writing itself.

I felt the Lord’s hand during the writing of my first book. So many times, I wanted to give up! But I know it was His gentle push getting me out of bed at four a.m. many a morning to write, even with only a few hours of sleep. I’m sure my departed mother had a hand in it, too. I better understood why, once my book published. I was afraid of putting myself out there, baring my soul to the world and hoping it would be well received. I never dreamed how many lives were touched by my story. I received countless emails and messages from people all around the world thanking me for writing Winds of Skilak and telling me how it touched their lives. I owe it all to my Lord and Savior, my mother, my husband, and last but certainly not least, my father, who was always there to support this huge endeavor!