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Who am I? Where did I come from?

I was once a little kid, but not any more. I inherited my father's genes and kept growing until I reached my adult height of 6'2"! I survived some painful years where I was called names like "stringbean," or "Wilt" (as in Wilt Chamberlain, a famous basketball player in years past), and was asked "How's the weather up there?" Not my favorite part of childhood, but for the most part, I was a happy kid.

I was born in Dallas, Texas, the fourth of five children in my family, but lived there only six months. I spent the next seventeen years living in a big old farmhouse in Connecticut. My siblings and I all agree that we had it pretty good. Loving parents, a big safe neighborhood full of kids and places to roam, long meals around an old round wood table, wonderful family traditions, summer vacations with no television (instead, we played cards, did jigsaw puzzles, enjoyed the beach together, and read a lot), a house full of books and family pets. You can't ask for much better than that.

Getting Started as a Writer

• I was raised in a family that loved to play with words and have been writing for as long as I can remember. When my husband and I moved from California to Idaho in 1980, and a teaching job was not immediately available, I talked The Lewiston Tribune into letting me write a weekly newspaper column for parents. It was my way of continuing my other passion – teaching – until I was back in the classroom. The positive feedback to the column is what lead me to write Parents Are Teachers, Too and two years later, More Parents Are Teachers, Too.

Over the years, Parents Are Teachers, Too, was also published in Italian and Spanish. Just this past year, I signed a contract with a publisher in Beijing, allowing them to publish it in Chinese!

• As excited as I was to have these two books published, in the back of my mind was always the desire to write a novel. As a middle school teacher for over twenty years, in California, Idaho, and Arkansas, I have read hundreds of books written for children and young adults. Talking to my sixth grade students every day about the books they are reading, I've gotten a pretty good idea about what makes a book enjoyable, at least to many kids.

 An Idea at Last!

• When the idea of reincarnation came up somewhere, and I realized I'd never read a novel for young adults that dealt with the subject, my brain started turning. I sent for books and read articles online, learning what I could about reincarnation and past lives, children's in particular. When I read about past life regression therapy, I knew I had the basis for my story.

• Riding Out the Storm, published in April 2006, is the result of my "brainstorm." It is a book about thirteen year-old Emily Clark who loves horses, books, and the parents who adopted her when she was three days old. She is an only child who is content with her life until the day she nearly drowns in the pool during P.E. class. What is so perplexing to Emily and her parents is the fact that up until this embarrassing and frightening incident, Emily had been a good swimmer. During the weeks following her near-drowning, Emily has a recurrent nightmare about drowning. She gets little sleep and starts to lose weight. Finally, her parents’ worry leads them to seek help from a therapist. Mr. Turner convinces the Clarks to let him try hypnotherapy with Emily, in hopes of discovering the event in her past that is the cause of her problems. What occurs during the hypnotherapy is not what any of them are expecting. The pivotal incident turns out to be the end of her previous life, and soon Emily finds herself caught up in the need to find the people to whom she was connected in this past life.

• A note of interest: The photo at the top of the page was taken on the island of Martha's Vineyard where an important part of Emily's story takes place. It's also where I was lucky enough to spend part of each summer when I was growing up. The photo was taken by my younger brother, Peter Guyton, who lives close enough to visit the Vineyard fairly often.