How It All Began

In 2008, if you would have told me I'd have two published books released and I was working on a third, I would have thought you were crazy. My life was full and I hadn't even thought about writing since 1991. It had been so long that writing wasn't even a dream. I was content with what I had. Being a Mom and Grandma was going to keep me busy the rest of my life.

Fate had other plans for me. In August of 2008, my sister volunteered to watch my brood while I went on a late anniversary trip with Craig to Washington, DC. He was teaching during the day.

I had a whole week to myself, and all my friends had been trying to talk me into reading Twilight since it first came out. I picked up Twilight. The first thing I read was Genesis 2:17. Since I'd heard enough about the book to know it was about vampires, I wondered what that verse had to do with the book. I turned the page and started to read. I was immersed in the Twilight Saga the rest of the week. I read all four books twice that week. And that was around sight seeing trips in the evening to the monuments and a trip to the Washington, DC, Temple.

When I came home from my trip, I read the past week's worth of papers. There were two articles in that past week's news that struck me. One was about the creation of artificial blood; the other was one on a study of antibodies created during the 1918 flu - the same flu that had killed Edward's mother. Those two articles coupled with the Twilight Saga clicked and a story was born. Noonday Sun, a fanfiction book, was finished by October 31, 2008, except for the Volterra Chapter. I finished that one by Tuesday of the following week. For those of you who can remember back that far, it was before Twilight, The Movie, was released.

The very first thing I wrote was the final chapter. I remember getting to page 80 and wondering what I was doing. Although I'd started several novels, I hadn't finished a single one. What was I thinking? I was spending all this time I didn't have writing a book that could never be published. Then the thought came that the book was done; I just needed to get there.

While I was writing, I took some time to read another book, The Shack, by William P. Young. I loved how the story taught the power of forgiveness, but I didn't like his take on the Fall of Adam. It struck me as highly misinformed.

My story takes a different approach. I had wanted to write a book using Moses 1:33-34 teaching about the Fall of Adam since 1991. The lack of immortal characters everyone loves and the birth of my son put the book on a 20 year pause. When I was given immortal characters, I couldn't stop writing until the story was finished. I hope you enjoy the journey to the end as much as I did.

After I finished Noonday Sun, I realized I could finish a book. I'd actually done it! I went through boxes I hadn't opened in 20 years and found several manuscripts. Tangled Hearts was written all the way to the Salina chapter, so it didn't take much effort to finish the book. I added events I had experienced through the years, but the basic scene where Serra is talking to her friend about adoption was written when I was 17 - long before I knew I'd be the one adopting.

Hidden in the Heart just had the introduction and the first chapter. I have four other novels half written which I intend to finish in the next few years - around kid time. They come first.