I've been writing since high school when my best friend and I wrote An Ode to Snot. Maybe someday, if you're lucky (or maybe unlucky) I'll share that.

But for now, just know that was the starting point.

I've loved the written word, well, forever. I'm not a fast reader - in fact, I'm a slow reader. I say the words out loud in my head when I read.

But I love the structure. I love the possibilities. And I love putting stuff to paper.

My degrees are in math, but I DO have an undergraduate minor in English. So it seems like I knew, even back then, that I wanted to study and focus on the written word.

Why now?

I've started (and failed) the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge a few times. Only last year - their final year, it turns out - did I complete it.

I wrote > 50,000 words of a memoir!

I picked memoir because it was "easy." I knew the characters. I knew the stories. It was just a matter of getting them out of my soul and on paper. Ahem... "on paper" meaning on the screen, of course.

After the challenge (and my success), I let it lie dormant. Until I got the word in July that I was being laid off "sometime in the next few months."

I flopped around for a while - mostly in denial. The closer a "few months" got, the more I started wondering what I was going to do.

Find a job? Of course. I have two kids - and kids are expensive.

But what else? Is there something I want to do in the core of my being?

As I was avoiding the realities of life, I saw an email from DabbleU in my inbox inviting me to join a challenge. (I'd rewarded my NaNoWriMo accomplishment last year with the lifetime subscription to DabbleWriter, a writing app. Again, clearly I knew this was something I longed to do.)

So I joined the DabbleU 60-Day Novel Challenge!

Why write a novel?

Looking at a novel from the outside, it looks like a crap-ton of complex, weird, intricate stuff that magically all comes together in the end.

But it's not rocket science. Maybe I could give it a go. After all, I've written over 500 blog posts on my math blog. And lots of people think math is hard (they're wrong - but that's covered in the math blog) - so if I can do math, why can't I write a novel?

After all, my current focus was alternately pouting and freaking out about losing my job, and (sort-of) looking for a new job. I clearly had the bandwidth to write a novel (famous last words, right?).

Maybe I could calm my freak-out moments with some writing. I have full access to DabbleU with my super-amazing-unlimited-everything-lifetime subscription to DabbleWriter, and they have templates and courses and tons of resources.

What better time than now to try?

What's it about?

I needed a novel idea. (Yes, pun intended.)

A long long time ago I wrote a story that paralleled John Cheevers's "The Swimmer." I really enjoyed taking a story and writing something adjacent.

That made me think about a book I read as a kid: What the Witch Left by Ruth Chew.

I bought it for Kindle and read it. Even with my slow reading ability, it only took a few hours.

This just might work...

I could write a story of the two little girls as grownups!

Why a website?

Those goobers over at DabbleU have sucked me in! I've never felt so exhilarated, excited, panicked, scared and IN as I have these past few weeks.

I've watched the lessons, read the articles and done the homework.

Then I started on the extra courses.

Apparently when you finish writing a novel, the world doesn't just show up at your door for a copy. Go figure!

And the first step of all the "business of writing" is getting your author platform up and going.

Thank goodness - something I know a bit about!

So that's where you are right now. My first step in the business of writing.

What's next?

Apparently I'm on a journey. One that I didn't expect. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm excited.

And I'd love for you to join me.