My biggest inspiration in writing has passed

On March 13th, my Mom, Mary Dianne Brokken Beghtol, passed into glory due to complications from cancer. It was a sad day, and even now, over a month later, it's hard to tell if I'm still in shock or if the grief spread out across the long-drawn-out process of end-stage cancer softened the final blow such that her loss is merely a dull ache at this point.

Regardless, she will be missed, and her contribution to my writing journey cannot be measured. When I was little, I was always telling fanciful stories, and she had time to listen, no matter how far out there they might be. At the time, we were a farm family, and life was hard. So, to have a little one always telling fanciful tales might have been a relief from the day-to-day. It's hard to tell, but she was always encouraging my imagination and reading. She recorded herself reading picture books and gave me a number of little golden books with records, so at the age of four, I was reading while listening and could read fairly competently before I went to kindergarten.

I attribute that love of reading as a source of my writing. Books gave me an escape from endless chores and inspired me to begin to write on my own when I learned the skill. This led to my first published work in 2nd grade. A local newspaper chose to publish a short story my teacher submitted for a contest. My mom was so proud. She obtained several copies of the paper and cut out the article to share with her family members.

That started an early writer-editor relationship between my Mom and me. I would come up with ideas for things or get assignments, and she would read them over and often type them up for me, which was super special at the time because this was before we had a computer. Having something I wrote typed up just felt "professional."

She didn't just encourage my imagination with the written word. She used leftover lumber and parts of broken-down farm sheds to build an amazing tree fort in our yard for me to play and imagine in. I spent many summer nights reading books and imagining amazing things happening in galaxies far, far away up in that fort. That ultimately became the inspiration for building the first fort for my kids, which became the focal point of the Towers of Light series.

Many projects came up as I went through school, including a letter to the editor ending in Star Wars Comic 84! However, our most significant project was one that we undertook entirely on our own. Every year, the state of Iowa had a writing contest for kids, but you had to submit something novel-length at a minimum. So I told my Mom I would write a 100-page story. She thought that was a great idea and upped the ante by saying if I finished it she would type it up and submit it for me. That became a story called "The Shock Troops Year of Conquest." I illustrated it myself, and we were both very proud of the outcome. I still have that binder today.

As I entered junior high and high school, I became distracted by a new-fangled technology called the personal computer, and my interests shifted from writing books to writing code. But I still had that creative bent. In high school, I wrote a fairy tale, and she encouraged me to enter a speech contest as a recitation, which led me to the state contest. Again, she was a huge help and supporter.

Once I went off to college, my studies shifted toward technology, and my creative writing faded into a distant memory. However, I somehow always found a way to work writing into my studies. I even took a special project class on the history of physics, which produced a number of papers on the lives and times of famous physicists. That trend of a technology focus with occasional writing followed me into my career.

However, I didn't start writing again until I had children. That is a story for another time, but the big point here was that my Mom was happy to see me writing again. While I no longer needed her to be my typist or editor, she did enjoy hearing about the progress in our weekly calls. One of my proudest moments was when she purchased a copy of the first version of the book that became Light of Mine to add to her church's library.

It was little encouragements like that and her regularly asking, "What are you doing to my grandchildren next?" that lifted me as I went through the long process of writing all six books of the Towers of Light series. As I move on to write new adventures, I know that encouragement will be sorely missed. However, I know that Jesus Christ is her Lord and savior and some day I'll be reunited with her in heaven to share those adventures.