When I tell people I wrote a book, many are interested in how the idea for the story came about. The concept for The Keeper’s Calling sprouted during the summer of 2007. I had the rough idea of someone finding a time travel device. It solidified on our trip through Zion National Park when we pulled off the side of the road to take pictures. Being an explorer at heart, I began wandering, climbing down a rocky hillside into a wash. Calling and waving, I convinced my family to abandon the car’s air conditioning to go on a hike. The rock walls rose up on both sides of us, at times so high that we were completely shaded. Kicking through the sand and dragging our fingertips across the rough sandstone, we walked through the narrow wash. When it opened up, I saw a couple of shallow caves in the red sandstone cliffs. Hot, tired, and thirst, everyone else wanted to go back. I was barely getting started; I could have hiked for another hour. We climbed into one of these caves and took a picture. While I walked I began to daydream . . . “What if?” One thing led to another. By the time I went to bed that night, I had daydreamed the events that would compose the first few chapters of my book.
On the way home from that trip, we stopped in Payette, ID, to look at a four-month-old Paint filly named Fancy. Once I’d agreed to buy Fancy, that horse was all I thought about for the next year. I completely forgot about the book idea. It wasn’t until one of my friends said she was going to write a book, that I thought, “Hey, I was going to write a book, too.”
In December of that year I got a laptop with the intent to write my book. However, I didn’t feel I could ask for the Lord’s help on writing a fictional story, when I hadn’t written my story yet—my journal. I spent countless hours during December getting my journal caught up. In early January our family sat down to make our New Year’s resolutions. My husband acted as scribe and asked each member of the family what our goals for the year were. When I said, “I’m going to write a book,” I got blank stares from everyone. I guess I really caught them off guard. My husband quickly got over his surprise and wrote down my goal. Two weeks later, I began writing. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. It was an obsession. Writing The Keeper’s Calling was like reading a good book, one I couldn’t put down. When I had to temporarily set it aside to meet the mundane demands of daily living, I plotted and planned when I could get back to it.
By April the first draft was finished and the outline for a sequel began swirling inside my head, demanding to be written. By the time I put Book II in writing, Book III made its presence known and wouldn’t be denied. During Thanksgiving weekend I typed the final sentence. The year I spent writing Chase Harper’s story was one of the best of my life. But I soon realized the real work was just beginning—editing and querying. Writing the story had been the easy part.
I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who answered my simple prayer and helped me through each step.
