In researching something else, I came across this inspiring video of Carolyn Hart receiving the 2014 Grand Master Award from The Mystery Writers of America.

I was blessed to have Carolyn Hart as my first writing teacher at the University of Oklahoma professional writing program. She nurtured me into my dream of being a writer. She maintains that people who read mysteries believe in goodness. I can still hear her, when teaching a class, saying, “What we write matters. The words we use matter.”

I say that those people who read romantic women’s fiction also believe in goodness, and in decency, in prevailing justice, joy, and happy endings.

In hearing her story, and remembering things she taught me, I, too, am inspired to say that I will give writing one more try. I will finish the book I am writing.