My passion is writing. Even before knowing how to form the letters of the alphabet, I remember scribbling make-believe words.

My first novel (actually a long, short story) was written during 8th grade as an English project. During the summer that followed, ablaze with the concept of writing fiction, I convinced the sister of my heart to join me in writing a medieval-type tale of war between The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five. The Beatles prevailed, of course, since we were both avid fans. Although both of these early works are lost to posterity, they still conjure a chuckle of fond remembrance.

It was also during 8th grade that I wrote Beauty, which you will find in The Thought of You. It is a poem expressing the yearning of a young heart. I was crushed to earn a poor grade and hid the work away, showing it to no one except the sister of my heart. During high school drama class I learned to use emotions to give life to my characters on stage. What I learned was easily transferable to writing.

At the age of 20 I moved to the north Oregon coast where I met and soon married Wayne Brown. During our first months together, I often wrote love notes to my husband. Soon he was writing love notes back to me. Wayne and I have been married for over 40 years now. The Thought of You is a condensed compilation of those early notes and poems about other people we love.

As life when on, writing took a back seat. For 18 years I worked in the banking industry, and then transitioned my career into investment advisory services. Most of my creative efforts were directed toward home, garden, and hobbies.
Time flies?whether you have fun or not. That realization smacked me in the face when my oldest brother Steven W. Johnson's book Not Much of a Crime was published in 2006. I hadn't written creatively in over 30 years!

With my husband's health in a precarious state and a business to grow, it was challenging to find time to write. But I asked myself, "If not now?when?" And the answer was simple?now, or never. I considered my energy cycle and decided the best time to write was early in the morning. Surprisingly, with passion and desire firing me, it was easy to reset my internal alarm clock. Getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. gives me two hours to write before "real life" calls me away.
Some mornings the words flow effortlessly. Those mornings are rare jewels to be cherished. Other mornings, I scrape along a barren, rock s...