This happens to be one of the most common questions I receive during school read aloud events or assemblies. I usually answer, “Since I was in kindergarten, isn’t that when you learned to write?”
I wrote my first story in kindergarten or first grade; a little flip book about Jack the Dog. No idea where I came up with the name, can’t remember what the book was about (probably have it buried somewhere around here) but it was my first story.
From there, I began writing through all kinds of outlets: poems, scripts, children’s stories, short stories, book series, parodies, and song lyrics. I loved reading books because of the adventures I was able to take with the characters. For the same reason, I loved writing even more. With writing, I could create the characters I would be taking adventures with.
In 2007, I published my first book and I was extremely excited to finally have something “professional” to share with my friends and family members who had taken interest in my stories. I’d no longer have to waste a ream of computer paper to share what I had written.
Around 2013, I published my first woman’s novel Annabelle’s Boots in addition to many of the children’s books I had worked on during my teenage years.
About this same time, I unknowingly became a publishing consultant and ghostwriter. I say ‘unknowingly’ because at the time I was just helping people accomplish their dreams of getting their stories out.
A year later, I found myself professionally ghostwriting for publishing companies.
Through all this, I continued with regular 9-5 jobs and really saw my writing more as a hobby than a profession. I wasn’t comfortable labeling myself as an “author” or “writer” because in my mind I lacked the degrees and book sales to be classified as a professional in the field.
In 2019, I decided to throw out my fears and jump all in. I was an author and I needed to act like one. I launched Teddyfly LLC and decided I would use the platform to feature my books and, if possible, help other writers along the way.