Member of the Month - November

I guess I have been writing for my own pleasure since I was about age twelve. Other girls had diaries. I had a journal. It included all of the diary-like secrets, but it also contained word lists, partial plots, stories and poetry. I remember being about fourteen and finding a list of symbols and common phrases used by proofreaders and editors to mark mistakes in manuscripts. I painstakingly copied every one, along with their meanings, just in case I someday got a manuscript back that needed correction.

Mr. Kisling, my seventh grade English instructor. I don’t even know his first name. Yet, he touched my life in ways that not he, or I could comprehend at the time. He assigned an essay to be titled, WHY I BELIEVE THERE IS/ISN’T A GOD. I remember the words flowing from me as I attempted to prove the existence of God. I turned my paper in and waited, expecting nothing more than a letter grade, and just maybe a ‘good job’ at the end in red ink. I was the only kid in the class who did not get their paper back. Instead, Mr. Kisling typed my paper in bold, large font and posted it on the bulletin board where it stayed for well over a month.

This was the first time I received praise for my work as a writer. It was the first time I dared to believe my writing could someday be something more than a dream. Mr. Kisling, a seventh grade English instructor in a rural junior high school, gave me so much more than just a good grade. He showed me possibilities and gave me real hope that I could someday be an author.

This question is really difficult for me. I tend to go through periods when I will read one type of fiction, and then switch to another type for a while. My mother is a ‘reader’ and I grew up believing that reading fiction is a life necessity. She liked John Stienback’s work and introduced me to it at an early age. I have probably read everything that Grace Livingston Hill has ever written. I’ve enjoyed the works of V. C. Andrews, Janet Dailey, John Grisham, Jude Deveraux, Stephen King, Danielle Steel, and Tom Clancy.

I enjoy taking an author’s works, arranging the novels in order as they were published and reading them to discover their individual growth as an artist. I’m doing that now with several works of Danielle Steel.

None, other than the general college level English classes and one creative writing class.

I use earplugs as a signal to myself, and others that it is now time for serious writing. I generally have a lot of company in my home during weekends and evenings, which is also the only time I have to write since I work outside the home through the week. Even when I do not have guests, there seems to always be a TV going or music playing somewhere in my home. These sounds tend to distract me especially when I’m working on a difficult scene. The earplugs, although not blocking out all sounds, muffle them enough to where I can concentrate. They also serve as great props when you have to remove one to listen to someone ask you if your are busy!

I realize this sounds rude. Maybe it is, a little. You may need to know that I’m the eldest of six siblings who all have children of their own. I also have two grown daughters with children. My husband has eleven siblings, all with children and now grandchildren. My home somehow became the family meeting place. Family and friends are running in and out all the time. I spend time with each of them, offer them coffee, eventually pointing them in the direction of the current gathering spot. Then I search frantically for my earplugs so I can get back to whatever I’m working on at the time.

What do you most enjoy writing?

I most enjoy writing fiction. At the moment I seem to be writing romance material. I expect that I will later branch out into other areas of fiction writing, just as I tend to do in my reading habits.

What at are your strengths and weaknesses in writing?

I’m inclined to ‘tell’ more than I ‘show’ in my work. I also get ‘wordy’. I understand that this is a typical mistake of beginning writers.

Grammar and punctuation are weak areas for me. I hate commas. I either have too few or too many.

I tend to ‘become’ my characters on a certain level once I really get into a piece. This can sometimes be a strength--sometimes a weakness. I have difficulty hiding ‘my people’ away when I’m not at my keyboard. I create them, then they float in and out of my waking and sleeping hours.

What's the one thing you've written that you are most proud of and why?

I’M A CHRISTIAN AIN’T I? is the work I’m most proud of, so far. I wrote it twenty-two years ago. I look at it now, and see it as amateurish, yet it was the first piece I ever had published. The magazine also printed a picture of my daughter who is featured in the article. We were both proud of that piece.

What do you consider the worst thing you've written and why?

In the creative writing class I mentioned earlier, I wrote a piece about the long-term incestuous relationship between siblings. I wrote how the relationship came to be, the issues of control in the relationship, and the continued manipulation of each other between the siblings in adulthood.

The instructor said it sounded like it had been written by a social worker. Since social work was my field of study, I wasn’t too insulted. Now, I have to take the idea and make it sound like a fiction author wrote it.

I’ve had three articles published in ‘Lighted Pathway’, a national youth/young adult church magazine circulated primarily within my denomination at the time. I received several copies of the magazine, but no pay for these articles.

I’ve written fictional child abuse stories for an awareness campaign, published in the local paper and program newsletters. I have also written several articles on child abuse issues, statistics, etc., for local papers during April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month. These pieces were all done in relation to my work activities.

Currently I am working on a romance novel, a portion of which is below. I also attempt to do as many of the Write List exercises as I can. I am at a very basic, beginning writing level. I feel that much of what I’m doing now is done for the purpose of exploring my talents and learning to apply the substantial information which is provided by the list.

My goal is to someday walk into a bookstore and see copies of my book on the shelf. I want to stand behind a person at the counter who is buying one of my books. I want to hold that book in my hands, confident that it is a piece of work of which I’m proud to have my name on the cover. Then, I want to go home and start another, and another, and...