Being the third of 12 children, you could excuse a person if they felt a bit lost in the shuffle.

But to hear San Diego's Melissa Vaughan tell it, her parents never let that happen, and, in fact, it was their encouragement and nurturing that led to her unfolding career in music.

"My whole family is musical, so we're always singing together," the singer-songwriter said of her upbringing in a series of small towns in Oklahoma and Texas, following her father's career as a Nazarene pastor. "We have family get-togethers and we all sing and stuff. They're very supportive of my music."

Home-schooled her entire childhood, Vaughan said her family didn't follow popular culture -- if they wanted a song to sing, she and her siblings had to write it.

"My parents really encouraged us to write our own stuff, so it really originated with them. We didn't rely on music on the radio, so we made our own music.

"My dad had us listen to classical, bluegrass, a little bit of country. For the most part, we were raised on classical and bluegrass and no mainstream or pop or anything like that."

While she often performed worship music in her father's churches, it's only in the last year that she's begun singing out with her own material, accompanying herself on an electronic keyboard. Arriving in San Diego when her husband was stationed here with the Marines, they decided to stay when he left the service.

Vaughan said that when she played her first show at Twiggs in San Diego last year, "I don't think I've ever been more nervous in my life than that night."

When asked if she might not have been a touch more nervous during her wedding, she laughed and said no: "We got married when he got back from Iraq, so it was a happy occasion, not nervous."

But since that first show, she's played out as often as possible, sharing bills with established local singer-songwriters such as Kim DiVine, and building up her own following,

Her husband is working in construction as he learns the carpentry trade, allowing her to concentrate full time on her music.

"I'm focusing on the music. I'm constantly writing, perfecting what I already have. It's an ongoing process --- you can't ever sit on your laurels. We're almost finished with my first album; it's supposed to be out in the next two or three months."

Vaughan said she's written about 25 songs she considers finished, and has a playlist of 16 to 20 songs for each show -- a number she's busy trying to grow.

"I probably write one to two songs a week. I'm very critical about the songs I actually play in public, but I have a huge number of songs that are unpublished and that nobody's heard."

And while she's concentrating on her music full time, Vaughan admits there's plenty she hasn't learned: how to set up and manage a small tour, for instance.

"We're in talks to possibly do a mini-tour, but I don't know how that will go. I definitely would like to do that in the future, but I'm just learning the ropes in San Diego. It's pretty daunting because there's so much good music in San Diego."

Still, despite the caliber of competition for show dates and audience members, Vaughan said it was San Diego County's music scene that caused her and her husband to stay here rather than move somewhere else.

"It's been very helpful for me to start in this scene rather than L.A. It's much more cutthroat up there."

Melissa Vaughan

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 21

Where: Borders Books & Music, 1905 Calle Barcelona, Carlsbad

Admission: Free

Info: (760) 479-0242

When: 6 p.m Sept. 23 (with Skyler Stonestreet and Brian Benham)

Where: Starbucks, 1385 E. Vista Way, Vista

Admission: Free

Info: (760) 726-0687

Web: myspace.com/melissavaughan