Twenty-one years ago I found myself going from being a full time student to being a full time stay-at-home parent. We had just moved to a new area, bought our first house, and I was home with a new born, a toddler, no car, and no focus.
After finding myself scrubbing the floors for the third time that day out of pure boredom I dug through old files until I found an Algebra II notebook that became my first novel when I’d tried to stay awake in math class many years before. My plan was to type it up during naptime and then find a publisher in the nearest city, slap the print out on their desk, and wait for their applause. Because, clearly, if my local bookstore was out of new books for me to read it was because there weren’t enough authors in the world!
A few months later, as I suffered through terrible prose and boring scenes that made me giggle at fifteen but not at twenty-two, I went hunting through the early internet for help. I found Miss Snark’s blog full of publishing tips and query help. She recommended a little place called Critique Circle.
And there I met Amy Laurens.
Not right away, but within my first year, Amy found me. Years later she said she’d intentionally hunted me down because she liked my advice on other people’s stories and wanted me to beta read her book too.
I don’t remember the book, but I remember the connection. She was close to me in age, finishing university and looking at grad school. We liked the same books, had similar religious beliefs, liked similar foods… we had so much in common our husband’s shared a birthday and could be mistaken for twins.
As the years went by we wrote and scrapped dozens of books. We joined a little group called The Slacker’s Corner, full of women who were never slacking off. One was the single mother of a disabled child. Another was a high school student. Others were in university or working full time. But we all loved writing.
We shared tips and tricks. Snippets and suggestions. Woes and words.
In 2008 I had a silly little idea for a suffering stay-at-home parent with super-powered toddlers. I wrote it for the Slackers to read.
Later, I found a submission call for unusual superhero stories and submitted my work after Amy edited it. I got a form rejection.
Amy and I went over the book again and decided… it was written, why not query it some more?
In 2009 EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE found a home with a small Canadian press (Breathless Press). We celebrated the release of the new book and Amy’s graduation from grad school.
Then, Amy took a delayed honey moon and came to meet me weeks before my third child was born. She was from Australia. I lived in the boondocks on Lower Alabama, and everyone thought she was crazy to stop in Alabama when she could go anywhere.
We had a fantastic time.
It was amazing to be in the same place as my best friend. We decided we were twins, separated by a few years and some strange genetic twist that meant we hadn’t grown up together, but in every way that mattered – we were twins.
She was an aunt to my children. A friend to my extended family. An essential part of my thinking process.
She was there as I signed with agents, published books, went to cons.
she built Inkprint Press to handle publication of her own work in Australia. She adopted the Heroes and Villains series when Breathless Press closed. We wrote the Inklets series together so she could have short stories for older teens with reading struggles (and to create a home for our homeless short stories).
Multiple times she visited my family in the USA. In 2023 we were able to return the favor and visit Amy in Australia. It was an amazing, magical trip full of family and love.
Six months later Amy called to say she’d been diagnosed with aggressive cancer.
Yesterday, she died.
I knew it was possible, I even knew it was likely, but I kept hoping that things would change.
Often we pray for miracles. And sometimes the answer is no.
Today, do me a little favor? Hold your loved ones a little closer. Tell them how much they mean to you. Give them some extra time because none of us know how much time we’ll have together. And go make the most of your life. Go do that thing you’ve said you always wanted to do, because it matters. 