so I've always been, uh, tell her of stories from the time I was a little kid. E I think most writers air that way. Um, but my my actual journey as an author didn't begin until after. Basically, I retired and my kids were grown in that kind of thing. Um, and I had had started kind of started a book in college in a creative writing class in that book had kind of marinated in my brain for a long time. So when I decided I was gonna be coming off there, that's what I did. I sat down and and wrote that particular book. Um, there's a There's a long journey in where I went from that very beginning to where I am today, and I think we're gonna kind of cover those through the through the next few questions. But so how I started to become a writer was as a child. Like I said, I tell stories and, um, I tell them to everybody in in all places and show and tell in school and things like that night started to get in trouble for telling lies on drily. It was just making up stories you know, to entertain. And so, um, just try and not get in trouble. I started toe write those stories down, and that was kind of my beginning as a writer. And then when I got in seventh grade and was introduced to creative writing, then I really took off. So I wrote a few stories in junior high that were published in the National Scholastic Magazine, and that was my first taste of publishing. But, you know, as a child, you kind of have your own idea about what you want to do. And, um So I went off to do other things and didn't really get back to writing until in later life, so that's kind of my story.

Okay, so I actually have two books that are upcoming. One is so I've all during my career, I've been writing paranormal romance, and so that's kind of where my love is. But, um, my book that's in the Ark stage or the Advanced Reader copy stage is a nonfiction book, which is the first time I've tried that. But it it actually is a method that I came up with as a writer to try and help me write faster. And I did a couple classes when with the League of Utah writers kind of teaching this method or talking about what makes story and the kind of the process that I had come up with to help me write faster and and not do as many rewrites. So as I presented that there were a lot of people said, You know, I won't Can you give me that s So I decided to write that as a book, and it's actually called plotting for panthers. So as a writer, there's usually two kinds, one we call a plotter, which kind of figures out everything they're going to do ahead of time and then writes the book and panthers which we just kind of get an idea and sit down and start writing. And so we do a lot of what I call writing on a tangent to discover things about our story, and we end up having to throw those things away. So we waste a lot of time writing. And so I I have ah, editor friend who is a very big plotter, and she said, I'm going to teach you how to plot I said, Okay, well, maybe that will help me, right? So, um, she tried to teach me how to plot, but as a panther, that kind of ruins the fun of writing for me, answer is kind of like that discovery process. And so, after reading a bunch of books and trying to figure out how to plot, I finally came up with this idea, kept saying, I don't know why someone can't just give me questions to answer that Keep me on track. And so that's kind of what plotting for Panthers is. It kind of is a book that explains how story works and then gives you worksheets with questions to keep you on track. The first, the first half of it is everything you need to know before you start to write, and then the questions that keep you on track as you're writing the story you really want to write? Um, the second one is the one that I'm actually writing on right now, which is kind of another branch out for me. It's a creative nonfiction, so I'm a ghost hunter, and I'm also like a medium. So I do house clearings, get called in for haunted houses and then clear out those things. And so that's kind of a This book is a new experience with a haunted house, and it's shown from the gulf point of view. So it tells what they go through as we kind of go in and clear them out. So it's kind of it's kind of another branch out for me, and it's it's kind of been a growing experience as a writer for me,I'm still I'm still struggling with what I'm going to call it. Um e have really love the books about haunted houses. Of course, because I'm a ghost hunter. Um, I read all genres, but the haunted house ones, they're kind of and the monster ones were kind of where my heart is. And, um, but this experience with this particular house, there was a lot of interaction with with the one entity who was kind of being held there and his transformation. And I was going to just write it in my point of view and kind of tell what happened. But I thought it would be really powerful for a reader to see what he went through. So I thought that would be cool. And then, as far as like who? I'm going to market those two as as a writer. Up to this point, I've been, ah, young adult author, and so that these two new books have ah, totally different audience. The first one plotting for panthers of courses for writers eso that marketing is all done on a right two writers and this new book I'm not sure how I'm gonna market it. Haven't quite you know it'll be for people like me who are really intrigued in the paranormal and and looking for that kind of thing. But it's also kind of a religious undertone to it about.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about the plotting for Panthers one first, because that one I can really delve into What, what I was looking at when I decided to write it. So like I said, it was kind of, ah, thing that I did. And it was a journey that I went through trying to become a better writer. So up to this point, it was like it would take me a year from from the time that I started writing a book until it was published and out, and that's a long time. And I really wanted to become a more prolific writer. So I wanted to be able, you know, you hear of authors that write four or five books, Ah, year And how the heck did they do that? But they don't have to go through as many rewrites and that kind of thing as I was doing so. My whole idea of wanting to become a faster writer is what kind of pushed me into this looking at how to plot, um, and and learning how to plot. And then my good friend, who's an editor, she sat down with me over and over and tried to get me to understand what plotting actually does for you and when I I have finally learned how that plotting works. And I think as a panther, we kind of have that innately in ourselves to know what what a story needs. But the discovery process of all the crap that we have to discover, which if we plotted would would be there. Um, I discovered that when I when I learned all those things ahead of time, then the story lost his excitement for me. So because I had plotted it out from beginning to end, I knew everything, and I didn't want to write it. So I'm like, OK, so there's got to be a happy medium for me to know just enough to keep me on track without going off on tangents and writing all these things that I have to eventually throw out. I wanted something that would keep me in that little ball where I needed to be. And so when I figured that out and wrote it out for me and then was asked, I usually get asked to do presentations for writers, conferences and things like that. I decided I was going to kind of just throw that out and try and help other people like me really understand how story works and how you, you know you have to have a goal and a motivation in a conflict. And you have to have this thing with your character, which I call the inner demon that is them figuring out their character are kind of thing and keep all that in a ball without having whining out. So that was kind of my process. And then when I discovered there were a lot of people out there who needed exactly what I had just put out for myself, then I decided I would sit down and and write that book. Now there's a big difference between writing, nonfiction and writing fiction. And so that process has taken me quite a while to to polish this book and get it to the point where I feel like it's ready to be out there for the world so that that's like a whole, um, different ball of wax for me. Then writing a fiction book where I sit down with just some concept of ah, a situation that I want to write about and how this character is going to change to writing something that's nonfiction. Um, all right. And like I said when was talking about this ghost book because I'm so intrigued with reading about haunted houses, I thought I could just put out a book about my experiences with this particular haunted house. And so I actually wrote the book and then I thought, Well, it's kinda kinda dumb just to have the conversation. I really need some movement in there. And and then, as I worked on that, um, so I felt like it read better than I really got thinking about how how is a reader going to connect with this? Because it's kind of just, you know, to read about someone's experiences is okay. But when you're writing for the audience, you really need to emotionally connect with them, even if it's non fiction or creative fiction or regular fiction. You if you don't connect with the reader, then they don't read your book, right? So I really got thinking about how I can take this experience and bring the reader in and have them really experience what happened in this whole haunted house. experience, and that's when I came up with. I really need to tell it from these ghost point of view and having seen and heard what they said and what happened to them. I thought that would make a better story and include the scope of what happens in a haunted house and in a clearing and let the lay person who's really interested in paranormal haunted houses and what they're usually looking for is some kind of, um, fax that there is life after death. Right? So So that's kind of how I thought I could. I could spin this in a different way. Make it it, uh, different book than you read, usually read on haunted houses and still have the reader emotionally connect with what was going on there.Facebook will probably not be out until probably fall of next year. I'm assuming by the time I get it finished, and then it goes to the editors and and we do work through all the editing process and and the, you know, finding a cover and all those kind of things that it's a long process. So you know, when I say people are putting out three and four books a year, they're riding three and four books a year. But it usually takes ah year. Thio get not only it written, but get everything together and get it in a publishing format and ready to go.