Nine Years Later

When I started writing “Into the Air,” I assumed I would finish it in a year…maybe two. It took four. And after I finished writing that first book, there was more to tell…Mia and Archer’s story wasn’t complete. So I wrote a second…and a third.

Unbelievably, it has been over nine years since I created that first Word doc…organizing ideas. It’s been even longer since the idea for the series started…when I walked home with my daughter from a play date and she told me a story about a “good guy” and a “bad guy.”

I often wonder if, during that story, my daughter had used a different name, a common name, for the “bad guy,” what might have happened…if I would have started writing at all…or if, like so many things, her story would have been tucked away in the deep recesses of my mind. But my daughter didn’t come up with a common name. She came up with the name Mehgo Capiro – a name that didn’t produce any search results on Google.

And that’s what got my attention.

Pair that name with night after night, week after week of watching prepper shows. You remember the ones…Bear Grylls, the Walking Dead, Doomsday Preppers. Stories of people left on an earth where no one else survived. People digging bunkers in the ground where they might survive for generations.

And then, last but not least, add in a conversation with a friend about “wouldn’t it be fun to write a book”…and I was suddenly off and running.

Along the way, I have met a constellation-full of talented, amazing, inspiring people. People like Dick Snodgrass who graciously took me under his wing and filled my inbox with eloquent emails laden with writing knowledge. Greg Rempel who read through one of the first drafts of “Into the Air” and told me the story was good enough to keep going. Bruce McAllister who gently sculpted my writing ability piece by piece, word by word.

Through the process, I’ve rediscovered old friends like Kathie Shoop who is a talented and accomplished writer of historical fiction. I’ve met a community of librarians, writing workshop groups, and neighbors who were writing their own books and trudging through the same daunting process of trying to get published.

And now, here I am, at the end of the series…nine years later...and Silver the Sky is just about ready to release.

Bruce told me once, toward the end of our time working together, that I would have some magical moments related to this book. And he was right. Crafting this story, speaking at book clubs, signing copies, has been rewarding. But the best moments along the way, the moments that far outweigh all others, have been the moments spent with my daughter...the moments I’ve watched her grow.

Cheers to nine years of writing...of growing, living, and loving. And cheers to Mehgo Capiro…for being a super, bad guy.