And So It Begins…

I’m not sure when my love affair with words began.  My family would probably say it started when I uttered that first word since it’s been suggested I haven’t shut up since!  But I think it was a slow reckoning which grew with a lifetime of experiences that I wouldn’t dare try to alter.

The art of communication is a thing I eventually came to respect, value and eventually strive to master.  Like everyone, I had things I wanted to share…I wanted to be heard.  But the fear of consequences seem to strangle the spoken words for many of the early years.  I did, however, discover the liberation of a pen to paper.  It changed me…and while that relationship morphed from pen to keyboard, and sat quietly waiting on the backburner while I lived life (marriage, children…oh…and throw in that 29.5 year military career!), I found my actual voice and the words came with experience and confidence.  I was able to use them as helper and leader in the finest military forces the world knows.  Public speaking challenged and changed me…and hopefully touched a few others along the way…but it was the writing I missed and longed for.  Non-military, nontechnical writing, that is. 

I retired from the US Air Force in 2011 and wrote my first book, The Unlikely Savior, in 2012.  While I’ve led a rich and wonderful life, and wouldn’t change even the darker times, I can honestly say, writing that story felt like coming home.  And I never want to leave again!