Meet Cherie
A Letter from Cherie
People often ask if I dreamed of becoming an author. The short answer is “No,” but the longer answer is “Maybe and I didn’t know it?” I didn’t set out to write novels. Fiction is a difficult writing form for me—conveying with words what I visualize in my head and heart. Blogs flow more freely.
But I’ve always been a reader. I love a great story. As a child, I read through the largest stack of books the library would loan me as part of their summer library reading challenge.
Since I was a child, writing has been the easiest way to express myself. It slows my brain and helps me sort my feelings and thoughts. As a teen, I wrote notes to my mom, leaving them on her pillow to read. She would write back and set them on mine. She offered me a piece of herself in her note—her heart in script—and it soothed me in a crazy world. I didn’t keep endless journals, but I kept an occasional diary, wrote poetry, and kept a travel journal from my summer trip to Ireland when I was in high school. I still create fun conversations between animals in my imagination and scenarios of strangers I observe.
Shortly after I retired, while relaxing with my mom in her garden, she asked, “What’s something you think you’d like to do now?” After a bit of thought, I said, “travel and write a book.”
Our first retired winter, my husband and I worked up quite a “story” about a real-life stranger who magically appeared from the fog hovering over the Florida beach. He said, “You should write that story!” I accepted his challenge.
After nearly thirty years teaching young people to write, grades three through freshman in high school, I challenged myself to write in a medium more foreign to me—fiction. Teaching others to write doesn’t make me a great fiction author. I actually had to unlearn some techniques I taught students for years. I can dream wonderful ideas, know all the best practices of writing in theory, and follow all the rules of grammar and still meet the blank page with a hard stare. In this first novel, I stared down the page and climbed the proverbial Mount Everest—trekking (and maybe at times gasping for air) through all the difficult stages.
Between raising three kids, teaching, and my husband’s career in law enforcement, I have plenty of material for story. Grandkids, travel, and a beautiful view from my writing desk inspire me. Today, I am dreaming of being an author.
Cheers to what comes next in life.
in·spi·ra·tion
a sudden brilliant or creative idea
It was a most brilliant idea to
marry my man,
have children with him,
grow old with him.
It is a blessing to create
a home that remains a refuge for my grown children,
moments of laughter in my grandchildren,
treasured time with my entire family.
I live a life inspired by
family and friends near and far,
treks over the cobblestones of Italy and France,
a love that transcends time and place.
Inspiration is God, the Creator’s, greatest blessing.