My name is Louise, and I retired from teaching in public schools in 2011, where I taught for thirty-eight years. I was born in South Carolina, and my family moved to Maryland in 1953, where I reside today. Being the second of five children, I had to take on a lot of family responsibility in caring for my siblings and later, nieces and nephews. I was the last of my mother's children to marry and did not have a child until I was thirty-six years old. As a child, I did not make conversation easily, so I basically remained to myself with very few friends. As I grew older, I developed a love for writing out of the need to talk to someone. It was my way of expressing feelings since I was too shy to engage in conversation with the people I met. Over time, I incorporated my love of writing in class projects throughout high school, college, and then in my classroom. I began writing short stories, essays, and then poems. From time to time, people would ask me to write something original for them. I have written wedding poems and read them at weddings. Though I have notebooks of poems, what I pride most are the love notes and postcards I have created. Much of my life has been hidden in countless poems and essays written from personal experience and the inspiration and ideas of friends and family. Upon retirement, I looked for something to fill the hours, so I began reading romance novels in between volunteering. Having read hundreds of them, I believed that I could do just as well, if not better, so I penned my first romance novel with many more to come.