Who am I?
They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles;
They shall run and not be weary; They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
A Hobbit in Narnia
What?
If you’re a J. R. R. Tolkien & C. S. Lewis fan, you get the gist. A Hobbit is a small down-to-earth being who loves his creature comforts. Once upon a time in The Hobbit, a wizard knocked on Bilbo Baggins door inviting him on an adventure, way out of his comfort zone, often in the company of exceptional men and elves— elegant other-worldly intellectual beings. Bilbo returned to write his book, There and Back Again.
Once upon a time (2004), this petite down-to-earth journalist ventured into “The Fantastic Worlds of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien” (a C.S. Lewis Foundation, CSLF, event)— my own personal Narnia (a world inhabited with academic scholars—elves, so to speak). I went forth in fear and trembling after reading the academic tomes of some of the speakers. Once there, I found a home-away-from-home. In 2009 the CSLF president invited me to direct its Texas retreats.
The quintessential late bloomer, I began a second career going back to college to be a journalist and was a Washington D.C. intern at age 50. During the next decade I began speaking, directed our local writers conference, and after 9/11 wrote my first nonfiction book: Smart Steps for Safe Travel.
Though I enjoyed journalism, always in the back of my mind was a burgeoning desire to write fiction. An author in search of an idea—a concept with significance, substance, and staying power—inspiration struck in 2004. While reading The Last Battle, the final volume of The Chronicles of Narnia, the idea of a young English woman losing her family in a tragic railway accident ignited my imagination. What would happen to her? The idea for The Choice series was born.
I AM:
- a child of the Father, a follower of Jesus, and a temple of the Holy Spirit
- wife to my Prince Charming of forty-seven years. Joe is retired, and we live with a cat.
- mother by the miracle and grace of God to a son who took longer to raise but was easier than writing a book—but, oh how rewarding both outcomes
- mother-in-law to a lovely, intelligent, talented daughter-in-love
- nana to a darling granddaughter
- a Sanguine /Choleric personality
- That’s my signature color: turquoise
- regional representative for the C.S. Lewis Foundation
- writer and speaker on writing, personalities, networking, inspirational subjects, and C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien
I WAS:
- born Nancy Gene Dublin in Hollywood, California
- raised in Arizona, lived in Chicago, Seattle, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Amarillo
- flight attendant for twenty years, inflight coordinator for seven
- editor of newsletters for a decade
- served on the board of Panhandle Professional Writers—now Texas High Plains Writers—for twelve years
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- Program chair, publicity chair, president
- Director of Frontiers in Writing, our annual conference
- 1995 Senior Fellow at the National Journalism Center and intern for Human Events in Washington D.C
- Student at the University of Colorado, UCLA, Amarillo College, and West Texas A&M
- Published in the Amarillo Globe-News, Canyon News, Amarillo Observer, Accent West, and Focus on the Family Magazine, Human Events, andConsumer Resource, with over 200 articles in print. Contributor to Daily Devotions for Writers.
- Graduate of Bible Study Fellowship, Christian Leaders, Authors & Speakers Services Seminar, and Personality Training Workshop
