I never read much when I was a kid. Sitting still was a bit of a challenge. I wasn’t a great student except when studying my favorite subjects—kickball, dodgeball, softball, and everything else ball.

No one expected me to write a book, given my aversion to reading. But something changed when I was 62 years old. I read a delightful book written by Lois Lowry titled The Willoughbys. I loved it so much I became filled with silly notions that I myself should try sitting still long enough to write a book, if just to entertain myself.

A book needs a plot, and I had one. What if a kid being bullied by a particularly obnoxious kid finds an old Remington typewriter, and anything he types comes true? What would he do with that power? He’d try to get even most likely. But then what? The then what has kept me busy off and on for the past 12 years. I did write that story, followed by the second, third, and fourth. The four books make up my first series called the Nomoore Mysteries. REMiNGTON SAID SO, Calling Jane Stump, Don’t Bother Your Father, and NOMOORE are now available on Amazon. Learning how to self-publish has been a lot of fun but it certainly required a lot of reading—and sitting still.

The hard part is yet to come. I have to let people read what I’ve written. That’s downright scary. What if they think I wasted my time sitting still? I am discovering that being a writer involves sitting still, the actual writing part, and being brave—not necessarily in that order.