Introducing . . . Heather Justesen

Hello, my name is Heather and I, too, live in a small farming community in Utah. My love affair with books began before I could actually read, since my mom says she used to put a couple in my crib when I woke up at night. I'd look at them in the dark until I fell back to sleep. I started writing stories and plots in my head when I was not much older than that, but I never wrote any of them down until my senior year of high school. I've been writing more seriously for about nine years, and my first book, The Ball's in Her Court, a contemporary romance, is slated for release in October.

While my husband and I were foster parents for a couple of years I learned a lot about fostering, adoption, and renion issues for those who felt the need to seek out their birth families. I used some of the things I learned as plot elements in this book, and a second one I recently submitted.

My husband and I have been married ten years and live on a large lot that we share with our dog, two cats, three fish, a rabbit, four geese, eight quail, and a constantly shifting number of ducks and chickens as I hatch and sell the babies.

I like to read and write (obviously), quilt, garden, play with my animals, I run as a volunteer EMT for my community, run a business with my husband, and work part time in my parents' store.

I'm really excited for the opportunity to join these ladies on this blog as we discuss our writing journeys.