I have often been asked how I came to write my books. Have I been writing for a long time? Did I always want to be an author? Was it hard to write a book? How did I get the ideas for the first book? Are the characters modeled after real people I know?
I got the idea for The Hidden Key in early 2002 while working with Ker Place Museum in Onancock, Virginia. We were developing an exhibit of rarely seen 16th and 17th century Eastern Shore raised panel furniture and I was asked to come up with some ideas that would make the exhibit fun for children. I had a story in mind that could help children learn about the time in history when the furniture was made, and thought it would be a short story, something simple. When I sat down to write it, my first real story since I was a student myself, I typed "Chapter 1" on the top of the page and turned to my big sheepdog, Nelly, for advice. She said I should just tell the story and that is what I did. Nelly sat by my side and listened as I read the story to her, chapter by chapter. A few weeks later, after several trips to the library for research and pages and pages of notes, The Hidden Key was finished. There is a mystery, some history, geneaology, and adventure. It took several more months to polish it up, edit, illustrate, and publish the book. I decided to put a picture of the key, an actual handmade key like in the story, on the cover. It was the first time I had written a book and it was an exciting experience. I had the first copy of the book in my hands in July of 2002 and sent it to my parents. By September, we had to reprint the book as we had sold out the first 2000 copies. Nelly was a busy girl that summer!
In the winter of 2003 I started writing my second book, Treasure On Chincoteague Island. This book follows The Hidden Key, with most of the same characters and many new ones. I decided to write it because I had gotten very attached to my characters in the first book and wanted their adventures to continue. One special addition to Treasure is Maddie, a deaf girl on vacation on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Maddie meets Megan and Kendall and their friends and the readers learn about Sign Language and watch as Megan develops a secret code based on the fingerspelling alphabet. Treasure also has ponies, pirates, treasure coins, and plenty of fast-paced excitement as the children spend some time on this island off the Atlantic coast in Virginia. I finished Treasure on Chincoteague Island that spring and painted a huge picture to be the cover of that book. The paintings from the two book covers hang in the living room of my Florida house where I live with my husband, David, and Daisy, our new publisher. (There's a cute picture of Daisy on the back of the book!)
I never thought much before about being an author, but now I have found that I really enjoy writing my stories. My younger brother has been writing fiction for years (he is a lawyer by day and writer by night!) and he encouraged me a lot. I am thinking about the third book in the series, but am just starting the research and I don't know when I will begin the actual writing. I was a teacher of the deaf for many years and loved teaching my students to read. I hope that readers of my books have fun with them, and maybe learn something new, too.
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