Celebrating 25 Years as an independent Freelance Writer and Editor

 I was first published in 1998 when a poem I wrote won first place prize in the Insight magazine poetry contest! After that I wrote other articles for Insight and began to study public relations in the School of Journalism and Communication at Southern Adventist University, and I wrote for the Southern Accent, the student newspaper there. I learned about writing, photography, and speech and took a variety of English and literature classes. When I took a Feature Article Writing class, I learned many things about freelance writing, pitching story ideas, and the process of writing for publication. I loved it so much that I immediately began pursuing freelance writing opportunities. Read more

Editing & Writing in 2020

The waves of the ocean are inspiration for me, but they also seem to illustrate how 2020 is feeling! One day I'm catching a wave and feeling pulled by its froth, but then just as quickly I'm getting knocked over by the next wave. Shifting sands is another way to describe 2020, because COVID-19 has made so many things seem uncertain.  But like a beautiful sunset, painted by the Hand of God, 2020 still provides reasons to be thankful and celebrate what is good in life!

It is good to have time at home!

It is good to share meals with my family!

It is good to work on editing the next book for Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin! - coming soon!

It is good to declutter my house!

It is good to reestablish my priorities and work on them!

It is good to watch the birds and squirrels in my back yard!

It is good to write for Youth Sabbath School Ideas, a great new website for Bible study resources for teens ages 14-18. See https://www.youthsabbathschoolideas.org/weekly-lessons/2020

It is good to seek my Heavenly Father and know that He is a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, and My God!

2020 is not all bad, and I believe it is about to get much, much better!

2019! Writing, Editing, and Research

2019 is here! I am working hard to get writing and editing projects completed! Last year, writing and editing were items that I had relegated to the "as time permits" category in my life. But, I am planning for 2019 to be the year that status changes! Big time! Writing is going to become scheduled time, because I have some really exciting projects in my queue!  I am so excited to start sharing more updates with you here on my website blog! I am busy getting everything with my personal writing projects organized right now, while handling multiple deadlines for writing and editing freelance work!

Working from home is a juggling act! Add to that, my difficulty in saying "no" to helping with activities, events, and ministries! I love being involved with PTA at my son's school, and serving on the children's ministries team at my church, and just generally being available to friends and family for help or for fun get-to-gethers! Just being the housewife (not desperate) and Mommy in my home is enough to send me over the edge of sanity sometimes! Life has many details that often go unnoticed, but if someone (me) doesn't take care of them they can cause a lot of trouble. Think rock in your sock... small detail, but lots of trouble! Keeping up with the responsibilities of life is a challenge, but with God's strength I can do all things (Philippians 4:13)!

I am currently working on an article for my wonderful alma mater, Southern Adventist University! I love to write for the Columns magazine, which is their alumni publication. It contains many interesting stories about what is happening on campus and stories about alumni. I have a few samples of articles I have written for Columns on my Publications page. Check the PDFs of them out! I really enjoy writing for Columns and staying connected, at least in a small way, with Southern! Afterall, it was there on that beautiful campus, where I first started to learn, from some of the best professors, how to be a professional writer and communicator. Dorm life, friends, Collegedale, classes, ministries, and so much more were all some great memories made!

But back to my 2019 updates! This month, I am also beginning the process of editing another book for Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin! I am excited to partner with her again to get her great marriage and family counseling resources into the hands of readers! This book is going to be DYNOMITE!  Watch for more details when it is published in the near future! Take a look at other books I edited for Dr. Kim!

Research is another area of focus I have been putting as much time into as possible. I am researching to write about my Mom's World War II survival story! I can't share more details on that yet, but I can tell you that I am very much looking forward to writing this wonderful, amazing, miracle-filled story! I know it will touch the hearts of many people and help their faith in God to grow stronger!

My 2019 is starting out fantastic! I hope yours is too!

Celebrating 20 years of freelance writing!  - 1998-2018

I was first published in 1998 when a poem I wrote won first prize in the Insight magazine poetry contest! After that I wrote other articles forInsight and began to study public relations in the School of Journalism and Communication at Southern Adventist University, and I wrote for the Southern Accent, the student newspaper there. I learned about writing, photography, and speech and took a variety of English and literature classes. When I took a Feature Article Writing class, I learned many things about freelance writing, pitching story ideas, and the process of writing for publication. I loved it so much that I immediately began pursuing freelance writing opportunities. I started with publications for the Seventh-day Adventist church because those were what I was familiar with. I worked at the headquarters for the Seventh-day Adventist Church one summer as a communication intern and developed a network of editors and communication professionals who I could write for.  READ MORE

Building my Online Portfolio

I am in the process of gaining a broader perspective on the business of writing. The first thing I admire about successful writers is their books and articles, but then I love to visit and explore their websites! It is really inspiring to see their biography, their books, a news feed with what is new for them and the writing projects they are working. I decided to make a website about my writing, too! It is really important for writers to have a website, because it creates a "store front" for people to visit and see what projects and products the writer is working on or have completed.

One of the first parts of my website is the portfolio tab where I am giving people the opportunity to read a selection of the articles I have published in the past few years. It will also give me a place to organize and display my writing and share it with family, friends, and professional colleagues. I hope you will take the time to read the articles I have posted on here!

My new website!

I'm really excited about my online portfolio and my new website! I have been writing for magazines and Bible study publications for almost 20 years now! I have hundreds of published articles in my portfolio and have really enjoyed my freelance writing career through the years. I have kept a portfolio of all my published writing in three-ring binders for many years, but recently I decided to put samples of my writing online and build a website.

I have really been thankful for the opportunities I have had to write for Seventh-day Adventists publications, some of which are published internationally. Some of my writing has even been translated into several languages like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, German, and others.

As a work-from-home writer and editor, it has always been challenging to balance working-from-home and "life"! But despite the craziness that working from home can sometimes create, I do feel really blessed to have had the opportunities to write for ministry resources and meet interesting people when interviewing for feature articles in magazines.

Writing has been my absolute PASSION for many years, and I have worked really hard to find freelance writing opportunities!


Lately, I have been doing less freelance writing, and that is actually something I am really excited about! I am writing a book and planning to write other books in the near future, too! I am planning to self-publish books, and have been researching and exploring the best ways to do that.

I have wanted to write a book for many years, but the time never seemed quite right because I was busy getting married, working, going to graduate school, growing our family, and organizing volunteer projects, and completing household projects! Life does not stop for us to pursue our dreams, I am learning that more and more the older I get.

Life is busy, but you just gotta make time for what is important!  

I'm starting my personal writing projects by publishing a vegetarian cookbook! There will be more details about my cookbook and a count down of recipes in the next few weeks after the holidays!