AboutLinda
My Journey
General History
For years, I tried to be perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect teacher, and I crammed so many activities into my days, twenty-four hours couldn’t possibly hold them all – perfectly. Once I became an empty-nester, I discovered the motto, “relentlessly eliminate hurry.”
Where were those three words when I juggled full-time teaching, attended every sports event in every season for each of three sons, and still tried to find time for extras like, say, date night with my equally busy husband or lunches out with the girls, or a quick trip to visit my parents six states away?
Ancient History
I started life as an Air Force brat, moving all over the country more than a dozen times before entering high school. My deaf sister was born in the midst of all those transfers.
From the age of four, I knew I would be a teacher. I attended college as a special education major, met a great guy, Jack, married him, and had three sons in under five years. It was during the early years of our marriage, that I truly found my Savior and dedicated my life to Him.
When our boys were small, I was a stay-at-home mom. We collected our gear and went to the pool in our small town in Indiana, Eric on his trike, Adam in the baby bicycle seat, and Danny in the infant snuggly strapped to my chest. When it rained, everybody donned galoshes (how about that for an old-fashioned word?), and we stomped through mud puddles to our everlasting glee.
It was fun.
It was exhausting.
In order to do something more grown up than play alphabet bingo with my oldest, I started to write. I won a contest! I submitted articles to magazines. They were accepted! Cool! I kept writing until my youngest had a couple years of elementary school under his belt, and then I returned to my first love. Teaching. Even better, I was allowed the privilege of teaching in Christian schools.
Recent History
I never thought I’d care whether I became a grandma or not. Grandmas are old ladies. Surprise! As soon as the first kiddo was born, I was hooked. We now have eight grandchildren. No matter where they live, and they all live out of state, I’ll find the time and the finances to travel and visit every two months for the first year of the new baby’s life.
You gotta stop and smell the roses with those little ones. Now that my Army son outranks his grandfather who retired from a twenty-year Air Force career, experience tells me: those grandchildren will be in college before I have a chance to blink twice.
To the Present
As of May 2016, I retired from teaching. Twenty-five years! I visit school occasionally to teach a creative writing workshop, but my time is spent learning the craft of novel-writing, my new and growing passion. My first novel, Reaching Into Silence, was published at the end of 2022, and its sequels in the World Without Sound series will be available early in 2023.Think about it. A person who has never heard language, never heard thunder, never heard train whistles or leaves rustling in a breeze is instructed to use her voice to communicate with words. Over fifty years later, it still isn’t easy, but the real-life Krista has earned three college degrees—which outclasses me by a long shot!
Work-In-Progress
I have so many story ideas, I expect to be the Grandma Moses of 21st century literature!
With the World Without Sound series complete, my next project is a women’s fiction series, The Cracked Quartet. The idea for the story is grounded in my own life experience with college roommates who have remained friends for decades, but this set of stories is pure fiction. I mixed together all of our personalities and stirred in events that never really happened. Within twenty pages, I couldn’t tell who was who! So, you will meet four lovely women who have known one another for thirty years. Each will have her own issues to overcome with the help of her friends, the Cracked Quartet.
Meanwhile, I have two other series, partly written, and more ideas on the backburner of my mind. So you see, I’m not exaggerating when I say I may be the Grandma Moses of literature!
The Beauty Beyond
I’ve lived life for a while now. I’ve learned what seems to be perfect probably isn’t, and what appears strange and intimidating might become an amazing blessing. May anything written on this site point to faith in Christ and bring encouragement to all those who read it.
