Look and Listen

Biography

I'm a disabled veteran turned writer who released my first romance novel “Orion” in December 2010.
I'm the youngest daughter of six children, a Navy brat who later served in the U.S. Army while attending college at Northwest Missouri State University. I love to read, write romance novels and poetry, cook, travel, watch hockey, sightseeing to historical places, and spend time with family.
My story is a not a simple one. I grew up in a working class family composed of dealing with both physical and verbal abuse by my dad, who served in the U.S. Navy for over 20 years as a Navy Corpsman. Our family moved frequently even after dad's military service had ended in 1971. My mother was a stay at home mom who did her best to raise all six of us to be respectful of others, pray, and showed us the meaning of true love.
I was born in 1968 in Illinois at Great Lakes Naval base, spent my younger years living in North Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. After graduating high school 1986 in Webb City, Missouri, I went on to attend college at Northwest Missouri State University majoring in Political Science and minoring in Criminal Justice. While in college in the fall of 1988 I joined the Army R.O.T.C.(Reserve Officer Training Corp), during the summer of 1990 between my junior and senior year of college I sustained sever trauma to my lower spine during Officer Basic Training. Physical therapy and finally spinal surgery to my lower lumbar would prove to be more than I could take. I continued one more semester of college before physically and financially not being able to continue with my education.
During my adult years, I worked as a sales clerk at Wal-Mart, car hop at Sonic, office assistant, and pre-school teacher before my physical condition became permanent. Even after regaining my self-esteem and self-worth I'm still a hopeless romantic who still believes in true love despite living through three failed marriages. All of which I could write a complete novel about do’s and don’t of marriage. I've dealt with everything from infidelity, emotional and verbal abuse, to public and private humiliation. Over the years I've won brief battles over cervical cancer, endometriosis, and what was thought to be a mild stroke; all of which added to my physical disability and would contribute to me being childless.
In 2009 I had second medical scare, this time changing my life forever. It was then I rededicated myself to following my dreams. From that day forward I would start living life and following my passion, instead of sitting around and day dreaming about it.
I have always had a desire to write.
One morning after awakening from a wild dream I sat down and began to write. For the next six hours my visions consumed me and it was from this the first six chapters of “Orion” were written. The first three chapters came from my actual dream.
A few days later I had my niece Stacy look over the chapters I had wrote, Stacy loved it. This was the fuel I needed to inspire me to continue to write my first romance novel.
Over the course of four months the novel was written, spell checked, edited, modified, and read over twenty times front to back.
In late summer of 2009 I signed with Writer’s Literary Agency, who then helped me polish my novel, and got me in touch with Strategic Book Publishers Group/Eloquent Books. By June 2010 I had a signed book deal with Eloquent Book Publishers and in December of 2010 my first novel “Orion” was released to the public online.
I'm currently writing my second romance novel and working on a collective effort with my sisters to write a poetry book that will benefit a trades school and college scholarship grant for children of U.S. veterans.

My official website: www.authorasjohnson.com
You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, & MySpace.

Inspiration

In my own words:
In 10th grade at Mineral Wells High School in Texas, my english teacher Mr. Black got me hooked on reading classics, soon Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, and Ernest Hemingway novels/stories were all I wanted to read. In 12th grade at Webb City High School in Missouri, my english teacher Mrs. Queen got me hooked on William Shakespeare and writing. Mrs. Queen assigned us a topic to cover and we had to do a research paper. That was my first real experience with putting my thoughts from pen to paper. I was inspired! And to this very day I give credit to those high school english teachers who inspired me to read the classics, write term papers, and strive to always give my best.
And no, neither teacher let me get by with doing my writing half a-- and for that I am truely grateful!

"ORION"
The inspiration for my novel came after a dream I had. I couldn’t get the dream out of my head so I figured I’d write it down, next thing I knew I had written the first three chapters of “Orion”.
I gave the pages to my niece Stacy who at the time was in her last semester of her senior year in college and was soon to become an English teacher. I thought it was a good idea to have her read it and get her thoughts on my dream. She loved it! She loved it so much that she gave the pages to her professor, dean of the English department. Several days later my niece returned my pages to me explaining how wonderful my story line was and she just couldn’t help herself, she just had to have her professer read my work.
Needless to say the professor wrote notes on my first three chapters, I felt like I was back in college and nervous to say the least. To my joy Stacy’s professor loved my work, commented that she’d "wish I’d been her student", and "couldn’t wait for you to become published".
It was with those few words of inspiration and support from my niece Stacy and her professor(dean of the English department) that really set the fire under my creative juices.
The following weel I wrote nine more chapters of my novel. Before I knew it I had “Orion” written.
My words to my friends, family, and fans:
“Never stop dreaming, believe in yourself, and follow your passion.”