I’ve heard that you have MS. What is it? How has it affected your life?

I was diagnosed with MS in 1997. Multiple Sclerosis is a neurological disease that affects more than 350,000 Americans. MS occurs when myelin (the sheath that covers the nerve fibers) becomes inflamed and/or scarred and interrupts nerve signals. Symptoms vary as widely as sufferers and include fatigue, weakness, trouble balancing, speech and/or vision difficulties, stiffness, paralysis, numbness or burning pain. I’ve had all those symptoms at one time or another, plus a few more rather bizarre—and embarrassing!—side effects as well. The most remarkable thing about having MS is that all I can really count on from my body is a new surprise every day. In other words, I never know what I can or can’t do until I can or can’t do it! Still, I am one of the blessed ones. The progression has been slow in my case and my family and friends are the most loving, helpful, and supportive people on earth. MS has changed my life, certainly, but in some ways it has changed it for the better. I am more aware of others’ challenges, more in tune with what is most needful and important in mortality, and more grateful for what I do have than I ever was before. In short (or is it too late for that?), this sometimes debilitating illness hasn’t ruined my life as much as it has enriched it. I admire the actress Teri Garr for saying that MS is just a bump in the road. You slow down, maybe you even change direction, but you keep going. And, truly, I believe that while modern medicine is a godsend, I know with all my heart that faith, prayer, and a positive attitude is what makes the most difference in the quality of one’s life. 

Note: I am currently writing a book about continuing to live joyfully with serious, even terminal, illnesses. If you have an experience you would like to share, I would love to hear from you. Contact me at this site. 

Who is your favorite author?

Please ask me instead why the sky is blue, why hose-water tastes so good in the summertime—or even ask me to explain the meaning of life. Now that I’m getting older, I think I may be closing in on that last one at least, but I will never, ever, ever be able to choose a single favorite author—in any genre! 

What do you like to read?

Words. And I don’t care much where they’re written, or even what language they’re written in. I love words! I read scripture, historical fiction, romance, newspapers, commentaries, tombstones, mystery, biography, children’s literature, billboards, fantasy, travelogue, autobiography, comic books, science fiction, diaries, history, poetry, textbooks, backs of packages, references, owner’s manuals, web pages, magazines, anthologies, plays, and sometimes even the writing on the wall. I do have one firm rule that governs my reading time: Henry David Thoreau counseled that we should read the best books first or we might never have time to read them at all. With this in mind, I read the scriptures every day before I read anything else, and I read something classical, literary or enlightening (usually all three!) every single week. 

What is with you and vocabulary? Sometimes when I read your books I have to stop and look the unfamiliar words up in the dictionary. 

My father would be so pleased to hear you say that. He was a voracious reader. (Is that one of “those” words?) He loved to learn new words, and kept a dictionary at his side while he read. When he happened upon a particularly delicious bit of vocabulary, he’d use it in one maddening sentence after another until I ran to my own dictionary, looked it up, and learned it for myself. He picked up this habit from his mother, so I am a third-generation vocabularist. (I made that one up since lexicologist doesn’t really fit.) Not only is it genetic, it’s incurable. I own a dozen dictionaries, dating from the 1800s to just this year, including one lexicon comprised entirely of “unusual, obscure, and preposterous” words. True confession: as much as I love playing with words, I have to admit that sometimes I am pretentious and silly about it. I make fun of myself through a character in my newest book, Mummy’s the Word. Chaiya never misses an installment of It Pays to Increase Your Word Power in Reader’s Digest, but only rarely do her shiny new vocabulary words make sense in actual sentences. That’s so me sometimes—as my editor will attest. 

What is a book doctor? 

A book doctor is somebody who helps an author make their ailing manuscript better. Some of the books I have “doctored” were on their way to a publisher; others had already been accepted and were on their way to publication. Sometimes a writer needs help with technical clean-up before the ms goes to a professional editor, but more often what they need is a fresh set of eyes to help them find a new perspective on an old project. Since I love to read even more than I love to eat (though you couldn’t prove that by looking at my hips), this is my dream job.  

(For more information, please contact me at this site.) 

Do you have advice for aspiring writers? 

Yes. I have advice for just about everybody about just about everything. (Just ask my children if you don’t believe me.) As for my writing advice, check my bio on this site then check out www.latterdayauthors.com. That site is full of better writers (and smarter people in general) than me! 

If you had to sum up your life’s philosophy in two words, what would they be? 

Okay, so nobody has ever really asked me that, but I want to share. I’d say, “Faith manages.” Then I’d admit I’ve borrowed the line from J. Michael Straczynski’s TV space opera, Babylon 5. Really, it’s the same message taught by Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Elijah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Nephi, Alma, Moroni and others—just put a little more succinctly. And it’s true—universally, I suspect. 

What if I have more questions? 

Send them to me in care of this site. I promise to answer.