KALISPELL -- For as long as she can remember, Kathy Dunnehoff of Kalispell wanted to become a writer.

She credits her Whitefish third-grade teacher Dewey Hartman with nurturing and encouraging her aspiration.

"I wrote a play in class that was put on for the whole school," she said. "I really caught fire that year."

A veteran writing instructor at Flathead Valley Community College, Dunnehoff since has written three novels and three screenplays. She defied the odds by attracting New York and Hollywood agents.

Now 43, Dunnehoff won a major writing contest in 2001 and became a finalist in another this fall. After nudging so close to a book sale that she could see herself on Oprah's couch, she remains positive but as yet unpublished.

A few years back, Dunnehoff slogged through some serious dark days when she questioned her life plan a to make it as a writer. She was lost.

"I never had a plan B," she said. "That time was just the worst for me."

Dunnehoff had followed the writing path with blind faith since her first triumph as the third-grade playwright Kathy Dunne.

She continued having her way with words as a freshman at Whitefish High School. She became a columnist for the Whitefish Pilot, a gig that lasted through her senior year.

"I had total freedom to write whatever I wanted," she said. "Sometimes I'd write reflection pieces about high school life."

Dunnehoff always loved fiction but bent to the wisdom of her family to major in journalism at the University of Montana. Her father, John Dunne, was a teacher in Whitefish for more than 30 years.

After getting her journalism degree, she worked for a time at KUFM in Missoula.

"It was a great job but it wasn't the kind of writing I wanted to do," she said. "But it was really good training -- journalism is such a strict discipline."

Determined to return to creative writing, she moved to Seattle, where she found a job at Starbucks so she "wouldn't get too comfortable." After about two years, Dunnehoff returned to UM in 1989 to pursue a master's of fine arts in poetry.

She realized the degree was near rock-bottom in earnings potential.

"It was ridiculous," she said. "I took a lot of eyeball-rolling from a lot of people. But it was a great program."

At 25, Dunnehoff said she knew exactly what she wanted to do. In her final year, she got a job she liked as an adjunct instructor of composition.

"I thought that was a great way to make a living to support my writing," Dunnehoff said.

Feeling warm and fuzzy about academia, she set a new goal of pursuing a doctorate as she prepared for her next job teaching at Flathead Valley Community College. But love changed everything.

"The first day I was there, I met my husband," she said. "He was teaching a section of juvenile justice."

Thom Hoff, a juvenile probation officer, and the then Kathy Dunne merged their lives and their names in marriage a year and a half later. She ended up staying in Kalispell, teaching and serving as the college's transfer adviser.

When her first daughter, Ava, was born, Dunnehoff said she had a lot of time at home to think about her career choices. She realized that she had been derailed from her heart's desire to become a writer.

"I started writing when Ava was born," she said. "That was a crazy time to start a novel."

Dunnehoff took classes from author/screenwriter Dennis Foley, the driving force behind Authors of the Flathead, to figure out just how to write a novel. When Ava was still a toddler, she went to her first Flathead River Writer's Conference.

She said she enrolled as much to escape the demands of motherhood as to hone her writing skills.

"I got to stay for eight hours -- I could go to the bathroom whenever I wanted," she said. "That was my main reason for going."

She gained more than a respite. Along with inspiration, Dunnehoff got to network with pivotal people in the publishing field.

"Here, the great thing is, the conference is small," Dunnehoff said. "You have contact with agents and editors."

In one session, an agent asked all the writers to describe their current manuscripts. Although she just had 50 pages written, Dunnehoff made her first official "pitch."

Her novel's heroine was a biology professor looking for a sperm donor. Drawing on her scientific training, the professor sets up the quest as a biology experiment.

The agent more than liked the plot. "She got really excited and wanted to read the first 100 pages," Dunnehoff said.

Thrilled with her opportunity, she ran home, churned out another 50 pages and sent it off. She said her words showed they were written in haste, so the agent passed on her work. But Dunnehoff wasn't discouraged.

"It made me realize I could actually write one," she recalled.

Dunnehoff continued writing romantic comedies through the birth of their second child, Grace, now 10. In 2001, she got a huge break when her novel "The Unsuitable Cafe" took first place for fiction in the Northwest Writers Association's literary contest.

Suddenly, Dunnehoff found she had her choice of agents.

"It was unbelievable," she said. "I chose a huge agent from New York. It was an amazing opportunity."

After soaring over her good fortune, Dunnehoff crashed back to earth when, after several years, her novel remained unsold. She followed her agent's advice to make her heroine loopier and add more sex scenes.

"I was writing and rewriting and the novel started to fall apart," she said. "I thought, 'I have to move on and end the association with this agent.' "

Dunnehoff said she realized that it was potentially a career-killing move. Her angst went through the roof and she hit a mountain of doubt about devoting any more time to writing.

"I call it my midlife career crisis," she said. "I was near 40."

With her husband Thom as a rock, Dunnehoff the writer climbed out of Dunnehoff the doubter. She credits her husband with refusing to give up on her ability to achieve her dream.

"If I could have given up, I would have," she said. "I feel like he absolutely held on to it for me -- he handed it back to me."

Dunnehoff recommitted to writing, accepting that she can't control what happens to her work when it leaves her hands. She decided to focus on what she can control -- the quality of her work.

She keeps a simple phrase from Foley -- the cream always rises to the top -- in the forefront of her mind.

"Now, when I have a setback, I say to myself 'Be creamier,' " she said. "That just means I have to be better."

It worked. Dunnehoff got a call and signed up with literary agent Jennie Dunham, who agreed to wait for her to finish a third novel before even getting a peek. It's about a woman who takes a 30-day vacation from her life.

The novel went in the mail about six weeks ago.

"I'm really, really excited about this third one. It's me," Dunnehoff said.

She also found success with a screenplay she wrote just for fun called "Revising Romance." On the advice of Foley, she sent a query as "a January thing" to a Hollywood agent.

Dunnehoff got a response almost immediately from Richard Shepherd, the man who produced "Breakfast at Tiffany's." He also once headed a studio and founded two literary agencies.

Dunnehoff signed up with Shepherd to represent her screenplay. The script features a soccer mom romance writer.

It was a heady, exciting time.

"We came really close with a director," she said. "He was down to three scripts."

Although "Revising Romance" hasn't sold yet, the screenplay placed in the top four recently in the 11th Annual Washington State Screenplay Competition sponsored by the Northwest Screenwriters Guild and Northwest Film Forum.

Dunnehoff remains undaunted in her determination to sell rather than self-publish.

"I want to be in the big leagues," she said. "I write commercial fiction. It's the big boys or nobody."

After taking a breather in August, she started a new screenplay. She continues teaching at the community college, offering classes such as "Everyday Creative Writing," "How to Get an Agent," "Grammar for Professionals" and "Creative Writing for Seniors" at the spring Senior Institute.

On Sept. 25, she has scheduled a pitching workshop for the regular meeting of the Authors of the Flathead. Dunnehoff recommends the group as well as its upcoming Flathead River Writers' Conference.

Dunnehoff said the most important piece of advice about writing she ever received came from a speaker at that writers conference. It had nothing to do with characterization or plotting but everything to do with success.

"You just have to be a finisher," she said. "You can get through anything. Once you finish one, you're a finisher."