You're a published author? How did that happen?

Yes, I am. I'll do a little show and tell so you can see all the stuff I've written.

1. This Journal.

It's a question and answer thing (like this blog) so I wrote all the questions that the journal-writer is then supposed to answer. And it's sort of based in the New Testament. There are verses that correspond to some of the questions. It's cool. You should check it out.

2. Tiny Talks volume 11.

This was the first real book I wrote. I was so stressed about it. I always have a tight deadline when writing Tiny Talks and the first year I didn't know what I was doing so it made things even worse. But I'm proud of the way it turned out.

3. Tiny talks volume 12.

I was much better at doing this the second time around. But it was still pretty stressful.

4. Tiny talks volume 13.

This one was fun because I had moved to California so I wrote most of it in the Pleasanton library. I also got a couple of my friends to help me brainstorm story ideas. And I used the names of kids I know and nanny for, which was awesome. Plus it gave me a built-in Christmas present that year.

5. Tiny talks volume 14.

I LOVE my illustrator. Okay, he's not mine. I've never even met him in person. But this volume looks awesome! And now I'm totally stoked to see what he comes up with for next year. I'll say this too. Writing Tiny Talks this past year, was soooo much easier than it has ever been in the past, even though I was working full-time and had just moved into a new apartment. I feel like I've got my system worked out as a writer, and that's so cool.

6. The last item in our show and tell portion of the post is my author website, which proves I am officially an author and which I am going to be better about updating someday. Once I learn how to do that. I'm such an internet dunce. It's amazing I haven't blown up the blog yet.

Anyway, it's called TinyTalksBooks.com. You should probably check it out.

And that concludes show and tell.

As for how this all happened, well, that requires a little bit of story time.

Once upon a time (as all good stories should begin) in an editing class at BYU, I sat behind a girl named Kelly. Through her I heard about a publishing company in the nearby town of Springville called Cedar Fort.

 I interned there that next summer and the following fall, I was offered a job as a book editor. It was shocking. I probably looked like this when I got the phone call.

Except I was 23 instead of 1 or 2 or however old I am here.

One day at Cedar Fort, I was in a meeting in which we were discussing a series called Tiny Talks. The then-author was no longer interested in writing them, so we needed to find someone else. and I volunteered (as tribute). Just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

At first I felt weird about writing Tiny Talks because I'm not a mom and I hadn't worked in primary since the summer after my freshman year of college when I was in charge of the nursery.

But now that I work with kids, I don't feel as ill-qualified anymore. Plus I realized that it doesn't really matter if I have my own kids as long as I can write a book that works for the kids and parents who use it, and I think and hope that Tiny Talks does. At the very least it works for my sister in law, Alecia who teaches primary and is totally awesome and probably my biggest fan. :) I love her.

Here we are cruising around the San Francisco Bay.

Anyway, the story ends with "to be continued" because I'd like to keep writing tiny talks for at least a few more years to come (cross your fingers that they sell well enough to not get cancelled). And at some point in the not-too-distant future I'm hoping to add more books to my show and tell list, specifically I would really love to publish fiction someday. That's been a goal of mine for years now and I think I'm finally writing something that I'll want to have published as my debut novel. But enough about that. I don't want to get ahead of myself and spoil the surprise! Just know that I feel very blessed to be published and that even though I don't usually talk about my books, it's not because I'm not proud of them or because I don't love them. The truth is I do love them. They're awesome. And I'm glad I get to write them.

Speaking of which, I'm going to get back to work! I'm almost done with a first draft of that debut novel and I can't wait to finish it! Wish me luck!