How It All Began

I never planned on being a writer, it just kind of happened. Sure I jotted stuff down all the time as a kid and a teen but I never dreamed I would actually get paid for it. I was a business major in college and spent many years in the computer industry. I also owned my own business, a smoothie shop in Redondo Beach CA, Smoothie Girl. But one day in the 25th week of my first pregnancy everything changed and I do mean everything.

I suffered a placenta abruption and my son Aidan was delivered via emergency c-section weighing all of 1 lb 11 ozs. He ended up spending 143 days in the NICU or neonatal intensive care unit for those of you lucky enough to not have experienced it. He had every complication a preemie can have. He suffered a brain hemorrhage, hydrocephalus, an intestinal blockage, a PDA ligation, and many other things. He even came home on oxygen and monitors that we kept for his entire first year of life.

So the reason I am giving you all this background is that one day when I was being interviewed for a story about my husband I jokingly responded, "I can save you a lot of time. I journal and I have all of this written down already!" The writer politely responded, " I would love to read it sometime." Well I sent it to her and that was the beginning. About a month later I received an email asking me if I felt ready to take on an assignment. I said "yes" and a couple of months later I was looking at my name in print. I had written a story about my son and it was published.