Dear Jayne - Why I write what I do.

Did you ever get a Dear Jayne letter?

I did. In my second year of college. Until that time, I'd been the one in a relationship to break off the romance. I still remember the day the letter came. I couldn't believe what it said. He was going to marry a girl who had been their family's foreign exchange student years before.

I threw myself on my bed, sobbing, my heart broken. I refused to attend classes for the next two days and lamented what was so wrong with me that he would choose a girl he hadn't seen in years over me who he had been dating him on his leave from the Air Force.

When he came home to buy her ring, I did what any rejected girl would do--I went out with him. Yes, I tried hard to win him back but it didn't happen. I was in love, you see. Deeply in love.

Or so I thought.

Life has a way of throwing us curve balls. That incident carved deep scars in my ego and self esteem. The next few guys I dated paid the price. When I finally married my real true love, he also felt the scars. Trust didn't come easy.

Why am I telling you this story? Because life is full of these kinds of events. My path is strewn with them. I journal and journal when they happen but sometimes only words leave me--not the emotions.

I tried writing sweet romances.

They fell short. Very short. I needed something else from my stories. I wanted to watch the woman conquer the pain in her life. Even if it meant that not everything worked out in the end but at least she didn't give up.

So that's why I write Women's Fiction. I love the journey we go through. I love writing about the emotions and the way we turn to God for guidance and trust when our worlds turn upside down.

Life isn't always about the rainbows. But they come.  After the mountains. After a few valleys. After a few letdowns and trials.

They do come. But what a journey until they do.

Why did you choose your genre?