Judy DuCharme

Biography

I was a teacher for 22 years, retiring in June of 2012. Coming from a family of teachers, it seemed a natural fit for me after my children were in school. I grew up in the small lakeside town of Harrisville in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the youngest of four children. Following college, Michigan State University, I worked as an announcer at a Christian Radio Station near Lansing. I married Lee in 1975 and we lived in the Detroit suburbs of Berkley and Royal Oak until moving to Wisconsin’s beautiful Door Peninsula in early 1984 with Bethany, age 5, and Christopher, age 3. It was a year or two later that I went back to school to obtain my teaching degree. I taught 5th grade my whole teaching career and loved it. Science was my area of specialty, teaching two or three 5th grade classes of science each year. Of course, reading, language, spelling, social studies, and math were part of my teaching as well. Each subject is unique in its own way.

All the while I was growing up I enjoyed writing short stories and poems. As an adult I put together my own Bible Studies and taught other adults in small groups or Sunday School classes. The desire to write was always in me, but the time commitment never quite seemed feasible. A few years ago the desire grew stronger, and I felt it was becoming a calling from the Lord.

Somehow, I began to find more time to write, but more importantly ideas seemed to well up within me, scenes seemed to form in my mind and spirit. Besides devotionals, I found novels beginning in me. I completed my first short novel, edited it as best I could, then set out to see if I could get published. The publishing process overwhelmed me. I had had no idea that it could be as much or more work than the actual writing. A friend of a friend who was an author gave me the best advice: go to a writer’s conference. There, I began to learn how to write better, find markets, editors, publishers, and what needs to be done. I still found it daunting, and have a great deal of rewriting to do, but now it is exciting and inspiring as well.

At my first conference, I met Eddie Jones of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. He was the one who suggested the Cheesehead Devotional. Anyone who knows me knows what a crazy Packer fan I am. It was quite a suggestion, combining two great loves: first and foremost my love for the Lord and secondly my love for the Packers. Several months later, The Cheesehead Devotional became a reality. It combines action from games I’ve attended or watched, experiences with the players, and simply the love of the game with insights from the Word of God. My hope is that it is fun, inspirational, and memorable. The next edition will be out in the fall of 2017. It will be the Hall of Fame Edition.

Since that first publication, a novel, a novella, and a short story have been published as well as stories for Guideposts Magazine. I’m so honored and blessed to be a writer.