Visit her website at https://www.barbarajeanweber.com/.
I’d like to know more about you as a person first. What do you do when you’re not writing?
I am a full time speech-language pathologist (since 2001) and I work with preschool and elementary school aged kids. I am a mom to two teenagers and have been married for 28 years. I love rubber stamping, doing arts and crafts, reading, water aerobics and spending time with my husband and kids. I enjoy watching movies, writing letters to pen pals and playing with our cats.
When did you start writing?
I've always enjoyed creative writing as a kid when I was in school. The initial concept of The Welcome Sign began about 18 years ago. There was some time of not writing on it, changing it, developing the story and characters, etc but I finally completed it. The Welcome Sign is written to be book 1 of 3. The second book is written but not edited or printed and book three is still in the outline form.
As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
That's a tough question. I started getting the idea for "The Welcome Sign" when I was pregnant with my 1st child. I had always loved creative writing as a kid so the interest and energy for writing was always present in my life. I had never written anything quite like this before. I had my master's thesis published when I was in graduate school but had never written a fiction book before. When the idea for the story came to me, inspired by a beautiful metal welcome sign with a mermaid on it that I received as a gift, the whole thing just evolved over time and became the book you see today.
If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?
The Oregon Coast. That's where I first started writing The Welcome Sign. We were on vacation in Lincoln City, Or when I started outlining the book. The Welcome Sign centers around the ocean and being at the coast gave me the perfect ocean/coastal environment to inspire events from the book. I find the coast to be very relaxing with the crashing waves, lovely ocean views. A very nice place to unwind and write.
If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?
I would catch up on mail, I love pen palling and binge watch Stranger Things with my oldest daughter.
Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?
This is something I have been thinking a lot about. I have another book that I was co-writing with my mom before she passed away that is still being worked on (not related to The Welcome Sign). I also have a third project in outline form (also not related to The Welcome Sign). I am still working on locations for both of those pieces. I did quite a lot of research to find the perfect location for The Welcome Sign and am still working on putting in that same the kind of effort for these other projects.
Why was writing "The Welcome Sign" so important to you?
Having an interest in creative writing from an early age allowed me an outlet for writing about things that really interested me. I had written short stories for assignments but had never tackled anything quite like this. I've always had a fascination with mermaids and magical realms so when I received the metal mermaid welcome sign as a gift, I had an amazing dream about the origin of the sign. That dream was the inspiration and basis for the "The Welcome Sign." As it evolved, it became a fun adventure story that I was eager to share with my family and others as I felt they would also enjoy reading it. A project that once seemed overwhelming and daunting was replaced with the joy of creating magical worlds, interesting characters, intrigue and battles between good and evil. It's fun to believe that my metal mermaid welcome sign might really have a magical origin story. You just never know.
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