We all enjoy “milestone” birthdays. At 16, we’re old enough to drive. Then soon after we’re old enough to drink (legally). Then we start marking decades, and 50 is a biggie: a half-century. But for me, the greatest milestone birthday of all was when I hit three-quarters of a century. At the age of 75 I wrote and published my first book, and here I am six years later working on book number 11, and loving this new passion I’ve discovered.

What makes this even more remarkable is that for my entire life I had a rich, happy life as a musician (student/teacher/performer/stage director). Music was my discipline from a very young age. Reading was a hobby, and I probably had a vague thought about “writing something someday”.

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I still remember the exact date I decided to write my first book – 6 May 2013. I’d just finished directing a production of a musical dear to my heart, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, with a great group of teens at a local high school. For the first time in 20 years I had no summer production to direct. I whined to a good friend about what would I do with myself that summer with no show. “Why don’t you write a book?” I looked at her as though she had two heads and mumbled, “I might as well try to climb Mount Everest.” But this wise lady countered, “Don’t think so big. Think about one event, something meaningful in your life.”

My introduction to Carousel was a high school production in 1954. A close friend’s parents were shot and killed by her estranged brother-in-law one January night. Two months later she performed brilliantly as Julie Jordan in Carousel, and I witnessed first-hand the power creativity could provide in an unimaginable crisis. This was fresh in my mind because I had shared the story with my young cast. My friend continued, “Write it in the first person.” I went home, sat at my computer, and five months later held a copy of How I Grew Up in my hands. I had told Anita’s story for her, since she was no longer here to tell it herself. I told it as a roman à clef, the fictional retelling of an actual event.

For the very first time, I am creating, producing something new with my talent and imagination

This was great! I’d written a book. People bought it and read it. They liked it. But I knew there was more to come. A subplot in the book, the story of my heroine’s best friend who met this extraordinary young piano prodigy with a congenital heart disorder. A friendship developed for a time. But what if that had become something more? The seed was planted for book number two. That pattern has continued through 10 books … and I’m at work on number 11.

The best thing about writing? It’s yet another way to share the music that is the centre of my life. Many of my characters turn to music to deal with the challenges they have to face. The characters I create become very real to me, and consequently, to my readers. Sometimes they take off in a totally unexpected direction, but that’s what makes them fascinating.

One reader refers to my novels as “music-centric” and that’s a pretty accurate description – even for the mystery novels I’ve been recently turning out. My protagonist is a musician (imagine that!) – singer, teacher, and now amateur sleuth.

At 81, I’m having the time of my life. For the very first time, I am creating, producing something new with my talent and imagination. I’ve had some modest success and some pretty nifty reviews as well. But I’m not looking to become rich and famous. I’m writing because at this point, I cannot not write. It’s as necessary to me as breathing.

And I’ve learned so much. The research is immensely gratifying. I’ve made new friends of the generous and supportive folks who act as my “consultants,” currently including a retired Cincinnati police detective lieutenant. Augusta McKee lives, performs, teaches – and sleuths – in that lovely city in the 1960s, a time when I lived there as well.

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Music continues to be a vital part of my life. I’ve been teaching voice privately since 1979, and I still have an active voice studio. My one non-fiction book is a memoir of some of the 80 productions I directed over a period of more than 30 years (high school and community theatre productions).

I’m totally immersed in each book as I write. When it’s been through all the edits and is being prepared for publication, another idea hits me, and we’re off again. Most recently, I’ve released a third book in my “Augusta McKee Mystery” series. Book number four is in the works.

I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble Augusta gets into this time and how she gets out of it.

• Susan Moore Jordan writes books set in the 20th century and gives private voice lessons. An independently published author, Jordan lives in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania