To Be an Author: My Writing Testimony

I remember the day the package arrived at my front door. I scooped it up and nervously pulled back the tape that sealed the cardboard box shut. I opened the lid and there it was: my first novel! I think I was a little bit in shock. This is something I had dreamed of since I was a teenager, and here it was, finally in my hands.

My earliest memory of writing happened in grade school. The nun who taught our English class told us that we could enter an essay contest; the subject was about the dangers of pollution. Rather than writing an essay, I composed a short story about a dystopian future where the ravages of pollution had destroyed much of life as we know it. To my surprise, I won the contest!

Even with my first short story under my belt, I don’t believe the writing bug had quite bitten me yet. I loved to read—and I read a lot of books—but I don’t think it ever occurred to me then to write my own stories. At least not until that fateful day in high school English class when our teacher, Fr. Joe asked us to write an essay illustrating an object lesson. Inspiration struck, and I concocted a rather-involved mystery story that included murder and mayhem. Not only did I get an A for my story, but I suddenly realized this is what I wanted to do: I wanted to write stories!

It was shortly after that event that the Flaugherty Twins Mysteries were born. I wrote the entire first book by the time I turned 15. It was awful! But, as I mulled it over, I began to restructure the story. And, as I studied the formats of my favorite Hardy Boys’ books, I modeled the new version of my story after them. The final product was 189 pages of exciting and suspenseful storytelling, with plot twists and turns, and an abundance of cliffhanger chapter endings.

Growing up, for the most part, I attended Catholic schools. I always believed in the reality of God, but as I reached my high school years, God seemed to be further and further away. I believed He watched from a distance as our lives unfolded. It was at that time that I began reading books on supernatural phenomena that did not include Christ. I especially remember reading Edgar Cayce. So, while my background was Catholic, my faith was minimal, and as a result my writing reflected that. My characters were Catholic, but their faith was also minimal. And they practiced occult things just as I did: tarot cards and ouija boards and the like.

During my senior year in high school, our CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) class went on retreat. (These are the classes Catholics take if they don’t attend Catholic schools—kind of like a Sunday school.) During that retreat, I had a profound encounter with God which opened my eyes to my faith in a whole new way. I became hungry to know more.

Even as I was looking to grow my faith, I was also looking for a publisher for my completed manuscript. I still have all the rejection notices I received from my inquiries back then. By now, I had started college and declared a major in journalism, hoping to have a second major in creative writing. Finally, one publisher sent me a positive letter. The note was from some assistant to an editor who said she liked the book and would attempt to get her editor to publish it. Months went by and I finally received a note from this assistant saying she had been unable to get the manuscript accepted.

At this same time in college, I met a girl in the dorm cafeteria, and we began dating. She also had an interest in writing, so we would often share stories together. And then she began to share her faith with me. She was also a nominal Catholic but had found some other Christian groups that interested her, and she began to attend their Bible studies. I wanted to grow in my faith, but I was not willing to take the Protestant route. Instead, I checked into the Catholic offerings on campus, but they did not much appeal to me. The only group that really caught my attention was the folk group that sang at Sunday morning Mass. I joined that, as did my girlfriend, and we began attending Mass together each week to sing. She also still maintained many of her relationships with her Protestant friends.

Finally, one evening when we were in my dorm room alone, she asked me if I had ever prayed the “sinner’s prayer” and invited Jesus into my heart. I agreed to pray with her, and although this is a decidedly Protestant technique for growing faith, it had a profound impact on me. At the end of the prayer, I knew that Jesus was alive today and wanted to be close to me, and that I had just dedicated my life to Him.

With this newfound vigor to my faith, I looked at my writing once more. By now, I had started a second book in the series, but I set it all aside because I felt like it had too many elements that weren’t Christian, and I couldn’t in good faith continue writing. I had already changed my major to broadcasting, having become disillusioned with journalistic writing. And I didn’t have enough credits to complete my second major. So, I was graduated from college with a degree in broadcasting and shelved the idea of writing.

Over the years, even as my faith continued to grow, I would occasionally yearn to write again. When I was in my mid-thirties, my father passed away. Because of that, I determined to finish writing the second novel. After that painful process was completed, I again put the writing away.

Even so, the plot of a third novel in the series was percolating in my brain for years after that. Finally, about ten years ago, one of my coworkers and I were casually talking about hobbies and I mentioned my writing. She asked to read the two completed manuscripts, and when she finished, she encouraged me that I should continue writing. I finished the third novel in two months’ time!

In conversation with another work associate, he told me about someone he knew who had lost their faith due to being involved in occult practices like reading tarot cards. From that conversation, I was inspired to completely re-work the first story—again—and eliminate as much of the occult elements as possible. My third story had begun to bring religious themes into the process, so I determined that my characters would have the same journey I had: they would start out with minimal faith, but it would grow through the series!

Suddenly, I found an idea for a fourth book in an online article I was reading. Then I decided to write a fifth book that would maybe undo any damage the first book might cause because of remaining occult elements. In this book, I introduce a priest character who will become a sort of mentor to the main characters in the series. Then I had an idea for a sixth and a seventh book, which I completed. My coworker also suggested an idea for a mystery and that became my eighth book in the series. I am currently working on number 9 and I have ideas for several others already in mind.

Finally, with some prompting from my coworker and one of my sisters, I sought out a “self-publishing” company and started the process of publishing my first book. Since then, I have also published the second book in the series and am prepping the third one even now.

With this series, I believe I have created wholesome, enjoyable stories with the flavor of old-fashioned mysteries. The characters are not perfect and sometimes don’t learn from their mistakes right away. But the stories end with satisfying conclusions that any young person would relate to.

I hope to continue writing this series as long as I can, and I plan that by the end of the series, my characters will have grown deeply in their faith, as well as solved a lot of mysteries.

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