***Originally posted 10-23-13


When I was in radio, I did a little writing here and there for scripts and other such things, but I missed long form writing.  In college, it was fine because I had plenty of papers to write, but once I graduated and started my career, I didn't have that creative outlet anymore and I needed it.  I tell people that the prologue for "Someone Always Love You" was something that came to me and bugged me.  It actually kept me awake at night, begging to be written.

So, one day, on a break from work, I sat down and wrote it out.  I felt better!  But the story was there and though I didn't know what it was, exactly, I HAD to finish it.  It deserved that much.  I had never written a novel before, but that was exactly what I set forth to do.

I honestly had no idea what was going to happen in the book.  The main idea was based around a woman in a coma.  My grandmother was in a coma on two separate occasions and I always wondered if she could hear the people around her...if she had thoughts, dreams, or other things going on in her mind.  Though I don't know what really happens in people's minds when they are in comas, the story is based on my idea of what it might be.

What came to me for the prologue was HOW the woman gets thrown into the coma in the first place.  From that point on, I really had no idea what was going to happen.  I wanted her to have memories of her life and I wanted her to hear some of the things going on around her.  What those memories would be and what those items she would overhear would be were  up in the air.  I literally just sat down a wrote.

Characters began to form and with them, an intricate story line of love, family ties, tragedy, mishaps and many other elements came.  Somehow, it all came together and I completed the manuscript in a little over a month.  I had no idea what to call it and no idea what to do with it.

My mom helped me arrive at the title of "Someone Always Loved You" and I approached agents and publishers and so on.  Though a few asked for more chapters, no one took the bait and I pushed the novel to the side and went on with everyday life.

Years later, my husband "published" the novel in ebook form as a present to me.  I went on to self-publish is in paperback form for fun as well.  I hope to go back and polish the book a bit more someday now that I know a little more what I am doing.  I also took the first few chapters to a writing conference in 2012 and won a contest with them.


Someone Always Loved You"Someone Always Loved You" is still one of the favorite stories I have ever written.  I feel like a part of me is in every single character and the story is something that I will never let go of completely.  Though I have not done all that much with it, somehow, people have been finding it online.

Just the other day, I visited the amazon link for the ebook version of the book in order to grab the link and send it to someone.  I noticed that there were reviews posted on the book!  I was surprised and excited to read them.  There are four reviews posted.  The first one I asked a reviewer to write and it is a three star review, though everything they said about the book is favorable.  The other three reviews are completely unsolicited and I was shocked to see there are all five star reviews.

You can read all of the reviews here, but here's what one reviewer said:

This book was amazing! The story was not what I had expected at all. The twist and turns it took certainly made me want to finish the book. Each character had their own distinctive personalities and I am not sure who was my favorite. The title goes hand in hand with the storyline. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading the unexpected.

Reading what complete strangers thought gave me hope that someday, more people will enjoy the story that I enjoyed writing more than you can imagine.  It's a story I will never forget and never completely move past.  It haunted my until I wrote it and though I feel better now that it's out of my system, there will be no ridding of it completely.  And for that I am thankful.

I grew up on the very edge of Iowa, very close to Illinois.  Most of my family was in the area and all of my friends.  After my freshman year in high school, my dad got transferred across the state.  I'd seen new kids come into my school, but I had never BEEN the new kid.  It was finally my turn...whether that was good or bad!

In grade school, I was an outgoing kid with a huge circle of friends.  Somewhere in the middle school, that changed.  I became much more shy and reserved.  I attribute it to the fact that kids became more in tune with what was cool...clothes, hair, makeup...and I just never cared.  So moving was scary and I had no idea how I was going to make new friends.  In fact, it's sad, I know, but I actually ate lunch in the bathroom on my first day at my new high school.

Skipping forward, I DID make friends.  Most of them fellow band members.  They called me the pit chick, which sounds like an insult, but really it was just a description.  I played in the pit in the marching band...the mallet instruments were my forte.  Since the other band members who became friends didn't know my name, when they talked about me, that's what they called me.  Eventually, they just called me Brooke. :)

Moving was hard, but it turned out fine in the end.  However, when it sounded like my dad was going to get transferred AGAIN and I might have to move between my junior and senior year, I was not okay with it.  Start a new high school as a senior?  Graduate with a bunch of kids I hardly knew?  That didn't sound like fun.  My mom looked into the possibility of me graduating early.  I never took a study hall in high school.  I found them boring.  With just one summer school class, my junior year became my senior year and I graduated with the class above mine...at the age of 16.  Okay, so I was only 16 for a week or so after graduation, but still, I was technically 16 when I graduated high school.  The below picture is one taken of me around the age of 17...maybe 18.




My dad did NOT get transferred and I went to a local college so I could live at home for at least the first year.  Since I quite enjoyed having a quiet house to return to for studying, a mom who made meals and did laundry and read papers, and a basement with a pool table and a pop-filled fridge for friends, there was really no reason for me to move out!  I went through all four years of college living at home.

I'm getting to a point with all this background information.  That part of my life leads me to a lot of what if questions.  What if I hadn't moved?  Where would I be now?  I wouldn't have attended the college I attended for sure.  If I didn't go to school there, would I ever have gotten into radio?  Would I have moved to Nebraska for a job after college?  Would I have met and married my husband?  Would I have my two little girls?

I guess I'll never know.  Occasionally I'll think about that time in my life and wonder what might have been different.  I'm glad things worked out the way they did, but it's interesting to rearrange life and see what might have been.  I think it's my writer's curious mind that does these things. :)  In fact, that's exactly what writing a book is like, only I really DO get to decide what happens.

When I write a novel, I think about a few different scenarios at times.  What if I make the characters go here...what might happen?  Or maybe they should do this, how would that look?  Though I'm not in control of many of the what ifs from the past, I CAN control what happens to them and that is the paramount of fun!  If you're a writer, you know what I mean!  It's fun to mess with characters.  The book "Accept this Dandelion" that I completed writing last month and am currently editing is a prime example.  I actually feel sorry for my main female character.  She gets lit on fire accidentally...she has an allergic reaction to lobster...her dress rips open on TV...the list goes on and on.  Nothing goes right for her!  But everything is just how I want it.  haha

If you're a reader, you can relate as well.  You might sometimes read a book and think, huh, I wonder what would have happened if the characters had done or said something else here.

Our imaginations are powerful and very entertaining.  I'm so glad to be able to use mine on a daily basis.  Messing with other people's lives...even if they are fictional people...can be quite a bit of fun!