Lexington Herald-Leader | 12/03/2005 | Retired nurse spins family story into her first book:

"A true story about a little girl swept away by floodwaters haunted Jan Watson for some 50 years.

What if the girl had lived? What would she have looked like? Where would life have taken her?

Watson, a retired Lexington nurse, took those imponderables and turned them into a work of fiction that has gained praise, support and editing expertise from no less than Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the bestselling Left Behind series of end-of-the-world novels.

Watson's first novel, Troublesome Creek, is now on bookstore shelves. Last year the manuscript won the Christian Writers Guild 'Operation First Novel' Contest, a nationwide competition to find unpublished talent in Christian fiction. The win brought Watson a $50,000 prize and a publishing deal with Tyndale House.

Watson said she can barely believe that something she wrote is available in the marketplace.

'How cool is that: To be 61 and sell your first book?' she said."

So, if you don't feel, as the saying goes, like a spring chicken, take heart! You, too, might get a book published even at your "advanced" age!