Turning a New Leaf

by Margaret Larsen Turley

I've been an ANWA member for several years, with a couple years of hiatus due to health issues. Thank heavens those seem to be mostly resolved and I am finally back to work for over a year and a half now.

I'm lucky enough to have a job where I work from home. I am a registered nurse and work for a company that provides telenursing to several clients (insurance companies and employers) as one of their benefits. I love talking to people all over the United States about their healthcare questions starting from birth/conception planning - on to death. As many of you already know, the books I've written and published are about my nursing experiences out in the field as a home health nurse and in the various hospital settings I've worked in. With my current job I get to roll out of bed, so to speak, as is, and flick on the computer, don a headset, and sit in the comfort of my own home office. I love it.

In the past few months I've been well and my energy levels have increased. That's essential for being able to write. I would try and try to write when I was in constant pain, but the inspiration wouldn't get through the fog in my brain caused by the pain, the drugs I used to control the pain, and the fatigue the pain caused. Now that the pain is much more under control, it is like I have a new lease on life. Once again I have dreams I can remember to jot down for future reference. I've written several poems. I've revised a manuscript and submitted it for publishing. I've signed up for the writer's conference at Arizona State University to be held in February, have prepared a manuscript for the agent pitch I signed up for, and look forward to listening to Orson Scott Card - one of my favorite authors. Of course I look forward to the March 1st ANWA conference, and hope to see you all there. I will definitely be attending Kerry Blair's class. She is my best friend ever and the one who invited me to ANWA.

One of my goals for 2008 is to actually have one of my manuscripts accepted for publication by a national publishing house. I would also like to find an agent that is willing and able to handle all the genres I write in. I can't be happy just sticking to one - never have read only one - so I read and write in many.

So at the beginning of this year I'm taking a step in a new direction - Blogging. Hopefully it will help me become a better writer, one who is consistent in making time to write on a regular basis. One thing I've had challenges with in the past is being scattered. I seem to always have several "irons in the fire," so to speak. But I keep telling myself that is okay - because while writing on one item I'll get inspiration for the other and visa versa. Sometimes totally new ideas come for something entirely different. I wish there were some kind of device that could record all those creative thoughts that flash in and out of my brain so fast. Having notebooks everywhere doesn't seem to be enough.

Margaret Larsen Turley / writing as Rachel Andersen
A Nurse's World, by Rachel Andersen
Volumes I & II, captivating short stories based on true life home health nursing experiences
Volume III: Things I Didn't Learn in Nursing School
To order go to iUniverse.com