Thank you for having me on your fabulous blog, Royalty Free Fiction! I am delighted to be here.
I first heard about the orphan trains in 1990. I recall seeing a snippet in an article that was written about big moments in U.S. history that went widely unacknowledged. I kept the article, I am not even sure I knew why I was keeping it, but I did. Something about it held a great deal of allure, the thought of children being ripped apart from their siblings and spirited out west to find new families was beyond my comprehension.
Life happens, kids happen, and finally in 2012 when things were quiet, I started my research. I was not an author at this time, mind you, just a curious American citizen. I uncovered such incredible stories about the orphan train movement that I felt I had to share this newfound knowledge with the world.
I became obsessed and started to write. I kept a notepad in my purse and whenever I had a thought about my storyline I jotted it down. Characters flew into my head and their lives unfolded on my computer screen. Soon, I had my book, Forgetting Tabitha. I fleshed it out, then fleshed it out more. The process was incredible. But until I gave the ARC to my own book group to read and comment on I didn’t know if there would be interest in the topic.
I was astounded by the encouragement from my reader friends to press forward and make this widely available for readers everywhere. I was inspired by the children. Theirs were the lives I thought of, as I wrote, edited, developed a cover, and created a book.
I loved every aspect of the writing process from the research to the promotion and so it made sense that I make a career out of this. It has been a true joy and I am so grateful.
