Annette's Bio-Annette's Website

 

I read a lot when I was young and had more time to relax.  As I got older, and started adult life with school, family, work—you know the drill—I had no choice but to put my love for fiction on the back burner and reserve it for times between mountains of laundry, juggling two jobs and baseball games.

One day, my Father-In-Law told me, “I’ve got this old computer.  I want you to have it so you can write.” I had no idea what he was talking about so I played solitaire for a week or three.

Within that time, my dearest friend told me an intriguing story of her ancestral trek to the United States. 

So was born my first novel.

I wrote Travis Pass on a used computer donated by my husband’s dad and inventing a story from an idea spawned by my friend.  (Sounds a little like an e-surance commercial.)

After writing Travis Pass, I wrote Sally Murphy, Liberty Road, Rock Creek, Albert’s Rain, Arpetta Honor, Whiskey Shots 1—all in a series.  The characters kept popping up in my head.

After I decided to put my 1800’s characters away, I thought of my grandmother and her interesting life.  I wanted to write a version of that and so, the ideas for Viveka’s War, Eureka Springs and Respectable Affair came to light.  That’s my WWII trilogy.

I just couldn’t ignore Amen Packard, my contemporary, firefighter hero from Intimate Flames and, when I finished that novel, his seven siblings decided I needed to write their stories as well—I’ve got two finished.

A walk to the post office, standing in line in Wal-Mart buying socks or driving to work and hearing a verse in a song or news report on the radio, those are the places I find stories to write about.

I’ve won a few readers awards, garnered a little national recognition and also write essays for friends and family.  Occasionally I write for my local and regional newspapers.

As far as literary training, I’ve got none past one college creative writing class. The professor loved my work.  He told me I should write for a living. I laughed at the idea because writers don't make any money.  And as I found out, neither do parents. 

Years later, I ran into him and I confessed he probably didn’t remember me—how many students had he taught at UNL between 1980 and 2010?  I gave him my business card that lists my website and explained the path to my writing career.  I thought he was going to cry.  

I want to mention how very important secondary learning is though my husband and I have minimum educations.  We feel so strong about this that we've encouraged our four kids to attend some kind of college so they don't have to work two jobs. We've been successful in that area.  My husband and I are proud parents of a Social Worker,  two Electrical Technician's, a BA of Arts kid--plus In-Law Kids living the life and Grand Kids well on their way to developing smarts! Oh--and lets not forget our Exchange Kids--all SIX of them.  Go Kids! 

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My oh so talented Aunt maintains my website--and lets me pay her in bottles of wine from places I travel.  Check out http://annettesnyder.atspace.com for the latest information on events and my work.  There, you'll also find a sampling of essays I write and a little more about the history of me.  Don't forget to stop by the links page.  You'll find the contact for me there plus information on other talented writers.

Purchase Books Here
Website Here
Grow Nebraska
Simon and Schuster