Hi! Thanks for stopping by my humble little site. In my romance writing life, I am Neenah Davis-Wilson. In real life, I’m Mom, Hon, Gramma, Aunt or Auntie Neene, and to very close friends and relatives, just Neene. In other genre I write in, I’m someone else. Like to keep them all separate from one another.
I’ve been writing for well over fifty years, having started my story telling days back as a tot in the fifties. Then, in fifth grade, inspired by Mrs. Miller’s story time afternoons, I began to write my own tales, mostly fantasy, and almost always with a horse in them–and always with some of my classmates. In high school I wrote fan fiction and a western called Captive Tomboy, which I gave to my English teacher to read in my junior year. Miss Cassill introduced me to Writer’s Digest and Writer’s Life. I made enough money baby-sitting to subscribe to both. Unfortunately, school ended before she had a chance to finish it, and help me get it ready for publication. More, unfortunately, she moved back to her home state of Ohio, and took the story with her. I often wonder what she did with it. Kept it as a fond memento of a student who appreciated her help, or tossed it because nothing was going to come of it now. I always hope she kept it.
From graduation on, I started dabbling in romances. At the time, I hadn’t a clue that these were mostly written to a formula. And when I did find that out, I rebelled against it. Happily, now, you can write your stories to a more real life formula. Happily now, you can also self-publish. My heroes and heroines are of all ages, and age differences. And there are always left handed characters in them, with at least one being a main character. I am left handed, and proud of it.
Back in the ’70s I read a story about twins, where one of them was born with some brain damage, so her cerebral palsy affected her right side, forcing her to become left handed. The author wrote about this rather patronizingly in my opinion, and it bugged me. We’re not all awkward and clumsy with our dominate hand. So, none of my characters will be treated with such an attitude. Maybe there will be one who is that stereotypical lefty, but my way of describing it will not likely be how it was written in that story. No, I’m sure it won’t be!
I have a son, now grown, who has cerebral palsy with affects his left side. He was forced to become right handed because of it. How do I figure that? Because he’s not very adept with his right hand. His hand writing and mine with my right hand are practically identical. But, if you’d like to argue that opinion, then he’s a very awkward and clumsy right hander!
My book loving mom began passing on her Harlequin novels to me, and from them I got my education of, not only what a good read is, but also, what a bad read is. And, some, in my opinion, and that of my youngest sister, were horrible. Yeah, Lil Sis wouldn’t read the book completely if she’d come to hate it. I would . . . but it took me days, weeks, months longer to read a book that I would’ve have read in a few hours had I liked it. Back then, I read more than I watched TV or wrote. But . . . after trying to get through one particularly annoying story which took me over six months, I decided I could write one better than that. Was convinced I certainly couldn’t do worse!
And that’s how The Courting of Thomasyna Tollefson came about. Actually the original title was Thomi, or A Favor for a Favor. If you want to know the whole process of how dreaming up that world came about, check it out at NovelsByNeenah.com.
So thanks for stopping by and letting me bend your ear for a while. I’ll try to keep up a fairly consistent conversation at least weekly. So, please do come by again soon.