It took longer than I expected. I guess most things do. But finally, finally my first novel The Triple-Date Dare is now available on Amazon.com. I can hardly believe I have arrived at this point. Click here to find the book on Amazon.

Several years ago, the idea for this story started swimming around in my brain and I bought a little NEO2 writer to start putting those ideas into print. Well, print on my computer. At the same time, I was looking into LDStorymakers Writer's Conference. Although I couldn't attend while I was still living in Hawaii, I perused the classes they offered and discovered the writer's computer program called Scrivner. For the minimal cost of $40, I bought the program and started playing around with organizing my story into chapters and scenes. It made me feel like a real writer.

I mentioned in my first post that I would put here some of the prompts for events in my novels. I have a few I would like to share.

The crabbing date. Yes, this was me, perched on the bow of the little boat along the rock jetty at Depoe Bay, Oregon in the summer of 1985. Boy that was a long time ago! My husband and I were just married and we were crabbing with his father and his father's cousin. The part where the first crab ring was teeming with oodles of baby crabs was real and I truly thought about jumping into the water except for the fact that all the little crabs were being tossed in one after another. We laugh about it now, but at the time, I wasn't sure eating crab was worth the effort. My husband pulls crab rings like David did, and is rarely skunked. Now, after all these years, we still head to the Oregon coast to go crabbing.

The shooting date. We are a family of shotgun enthusiasts. But it is our daughter, Amy, who out-shot her father's friends when she was included in an afternoon excursion. I always loved re-telling the story of how surprised those grown men were when our little 17-year old ruled the day.

The couple approaching David and Laura's quiet moment in the International Rose Test Garden in Portland. Back in the day, going to the Rose Garden was a pretty romantic way to end a date and we discovered this little bench surrounded by trees which, in the evening, provided a wonderful, dark place to steal a kiss. Once while we were dating, we were enjoying the privacy of that little cove when another couple started to walk our way. When we realized they were headed right for us, my husband (who was only my boyfriend at the time) cleared his throat and said, "Good evening." The other couple truly looked like they had been confronted by the boogey-man and ran for their lives. We still laugh about that. I would love to hear their version of the story...

The driftwood sculpture. This was an art my father-in-law perfected, although he didn't sell his pieces. We are privileged to have many of his wood sculptures in our home and I always admired the way each piece spoke to different people differently.

The rest of my story was pure imagination. I loved writing it and I can't really explain well how excited I am that it is now published. I guess if I had to sum it up I would say that I realized how to dream big. And I certainly had a host of help turning this story into a novel, not least of which was the Holy Ghost guiding me and feeding me ideas as I contemplated where the story would go.

Part of my inspiration for writing is to shine a light on the LDS faith which is so much a part of my life. I know the Lord is waiting to forgive us all our sins if we will follow Him. I also know that sometimes we feel like our sins are too great to be overcome and give up before we even give Him a chance. Laura and David's struggles aren't unique, but I wanted them to see that the love of God and the love they developed for each other could take those struggles and turn them into strengths. I hope their journey can be inspiration for others.

I am currently working on my next novel: Building a Life. It's the story of a young pregnant widow and the general contractor she hires to complete the building of a house begun by her late husband. I'll let everyone know when it's available.

Thanks for reading.

And so it begins...

Four or five years ago I began a journey unknowingly. I sat down to my computer sporadically and began to create a story about a man and a woman who would eventually find each other and their spiritual identities along the way. Yes, I write inspirational romance. As the story began to evolve, other story lines floated around my head and I wrote their beginnings (and sometimes the endings) so I wouldn't forget.

During the course of this compilation of words, feelings, and tiring fingers, I managed to relocate twice to different states, help (as much as I was able) my husband build two houses, and research a little what it would take to actually publish one of my novels. The going was slow, but always forward. I guess if you continue to make progress, eventually you either arrive at your destination or you stop before you get there. I haven't stopped yet.

It has been a leap of faith for me to get to the point of publishing my first novel. Along the way I have been taught by numerous professionals, friends, and family who have had my best interest at heart and I appreciate their generous constructive critisms and encouragements as I venture into this new and exciting chapter (pardon the pun) of my life. This blog is part of the set-up for publishing my first novel.

I've received a lot of advice for what I should share on this blog, besides the obvious links to any books that I publish. So I will try to take that advice and invite anyone who wishes to comment. In addition, my plan is to use this blog to tell anyone who is interested not just what I'm writing, but what I'm reading, too. I thought I might also share some of the personal connections I have to the events in my stories. After all, we've been advised to write what we know, so I plan to let my readers know where I get some of my some of my ideas.

My first novel will be available on Amazon in the near future. When I have a link to it on Amazon, I will post that, too. I'm going to thank anyone who reads this in advance just for reading and if you actually buy my novel, thank you in advance for your support.

Soon to be released: The Triple Date Dare

--Lauraine