After teaching International languages and cultures to high school and college students for twenty years, I took a long, hard look at myself and how I was living. I was miserable and certainly wasn't fulfilled. I wanted a major life-change.

Writing has always been my lifelong passion; I started writing stories and news articles in notebooks at the age of eight! Marriage and motherhood made having a "steady job with steady income" a priority so I stayed in education only writing for myself. I was frustrated and unhappy.

But in my early fifties, I made the decision that I needed to fulfill that passion and to make myself  happy. What was I waiting for?! Taking my courage in my hands and teaching only part-time, I began my dream. I sent out many query letters for a book idea I had and received many letters of rejection but I tenaciously kept sending them out. I also contacted anyone and everyone I thought could possibly help me with my new career.

I began writing for free just to get my name noticed "out there" and eventually someone did take note of my writing. I was contacted by the Examiner News Organization to write about relationships on a national level for the online version of their newsmagazine. At about the same time the book proposal that I had sent out to literary agents was picked up by Stacey Glick, vice-president of Dystel & Goderich Literary management, and within less than a year, she had found a publisher for my book, "And Then I'll Be Happy! Stop Sabotaging Your Happiness and Put Your Own Life First."
It is being released in December 2009. For the book I interviewed over 100 women who all had "misplaced their own happiness" over the years by putting their goals and dreams always last. This I understood all too well. 

It hasn't been all that easy becoming a writer and author- there were days I cried, beat myself up mentally, and wanted to rage at the world to get my writing noticed. There were marital fights because my guy didn't understand this was something I had to do; something as important to me as breathing.He finally has become my biggest fan.
The one thing I can say about myself is that I never give up if something is important to me. It has been that way all my life. To anyone who has a dream I tell you to go for it. Never be afraid to try. This is your life and you should be fulfilling your passions, no matter what they are. KH