My name is Joann H. Buchanan and I wear many hats. One of the hats I
wear is that of mom. That hat has a lot of stitches, patch jobs,
glitter, bedazzler jewels and stains. It is the most important one in my
life and the one I never take off. Between my fiancé John and I, we
have 7 children. "WOW", I'm sure some of you are saying, while others
are going, "Bread much?" The truth is that without them, I wouldn't know
what to do. They are the most inspiring beautiful people in my life.
The
other hat I wear in my life is that of a writer. I've always been a
writer. When I was a kid, my parents grounded me to my room with nothing
to do but homework, read and write. One summer, I was grounded for
leaving my kid sister at church. I look back now and laugh about it, but
it was then that I discovered the love of writing. I ran out of things
to read in my room, so I picked up a pencil and started writing. The
first story I wrote was about a gypsy bird. A whole new world opened up
for me. One I couldn't get enough of. I started taking the bus all over
San Diego just so I could sit and write stories about the people who got
on. They had stories of love, laughter, heartache, horror and yes some
of them were evil. My parents never understood this but I didn't care.
5
years ago this Easter Sunday, we lost our house in a fire. We lost
everything . . . almost. Sitting on my desk, was a stack of disks and a
paper copy of a book I was working on. The computer, covered in ash and
soot, melted down to nothing. Miraculously, nothing touched the stack of
disks and the paper copy of the book. When I say nothing, I mean
nothing. The paper was still white and the disks didn't have a bit of
damage. It was like an angel had protected them. It was also a sign to
me that I needed to do something with my writing. A few months later,
John purchased my first laptop and I put a blog together. I didn't know
what I was doing. Talk about being green. It took a couple years to
learn what things were like query letters, polishing, and all the other
stuff that comes with writing, but it was so worth it.
When people
ask me, how do you balance out your life? I tell them the truth. Not
everything gets finished. There are days I forget to take the laundry
out of the dryer. There are times when dinner is late and yes there are
moments when I say to my family, let's just have fun tonight. I'm the
person who dances in the rain and laughs when the milk is spilled. I try
to remember that my children are this age once. Without any one of
them, I wouldn't be doing anything I'm doing now.
When people ask me
why I wanted to get published, I tell them the truth on that as well. I
wanted my children to know that dreams come true if you work hard enough
and believe in yourself. I wanted my children to see me as an example.
They have seen my mistakes; shouldn't they see my triumphs as well? To
me that's the most important thing. They need to know that they are
going to make mistakes but that doesn't cause their lives to end. Each
one of them can still dream an accomplish anything they want. When
people ask me why I write, I write for them. I write because it's as
much a part of me as they are.
LADY J
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