Thank you to A.J. for visiting and sharing thoughts about writing and when life gets in the middle of things. Enjoy!

I’ve wanted to be an author since I was about three and have always loved the written word. Books were life, and an escape when things got hard. 

I didn’t start seriously writing until I was an adult. I dabbled some in college and shortly after, but I got married and moved, and writing was the last thing I was thinking about. After about five years of marriage, we got pregnant with our first child. At ten weeks pregnant, we found out there were complications. The baby was not all right. 

I had started a story for my former high school students (because I could find solid paranormal romance for them beyond the Twilight series that didn’t have high-school-inappropriate material), and the new stress of what we knew was coming, along with several vivid pregnancy dreams, sent the story spiraling, and First Shift came in part before our oldest was born. With our first few years of parenthood completely overtaken by medical appointments, surgeries for our boy, and the addition of two more children, writing again fell by the wayside. 

All in all, it took me ten years to write First Shift (and concurrently write parts of Rogue Shift and Sworn Shift). Once I was finished, with guidance and encouragement from author Karen Sargent, I entered the query trenches. 

Eventually, the series, The Wolves of Rock Falls, was picked up by The Wild Rose Press, and my writing career was launched! 

Now I’ve got several paranormal romances, a fantasy or two, and a murder mystery under my belt.  There’s another Victorian murder mystery coming out next year as well. If you enjoy Murder at Mistlethwaite Manor even a little, be sure to check out A Lethal Engagement.

You can read more of her short stories at www.ajskelly.com.