This seven-part series will cover the 2 ½-year time span between the day I set out to become an author and the day I became one.

Becoming an Author – Part One
Winter 2006

It was January 2006. Our family had survived a stressful move/remodel/live in a construction zone period for the previous four months. (Think “sleep on the futon in the middle of the kitchen” and “power saw on my stove.”) I had served as general contractor on the project, while trying to keep the chaos in our house from driving me to the brink of madness. By the time the sub-zero temperatures reached our Wisconsin home, our keel was even again and I found myself with a luxury.

Time.

The only work I was doing outside the home, was that related to my part-time business. My kids were in school during the day. And I generally hibernate during most of the snowy months. I’d always thought about becoming a writer, but it never seemed to be the right time. There was always so much to do, and for me, my muse never visited unless I had uninterrupted time – alone with my thoughts. If I was ever going to try my hand at writing, I needed to do it then, before we made the decision for me to go back to work in a school system, and while I had no major projects on the horizon.

I joined the online forum, Absolute Write and devoured the advice offered there by experienced and struggling writers. I signed up for a course – “Travel Writing: From Free Trips to Flat Tires”, taught by travel writer Amanda Castleman. The course cost about $300, which was more than I had paid for some graduate level coursework, but the ten-week course promised to walk us through the process of submitting to magazines, as well as line-edits. That’s what I really needed.

I’ll never forget my first query to a magazine. I submitted it to Boy’s Life. The query was about ice fishing tips and tricks, from the perspective of a seven-year-old boy.

Take a five-gallon bucket, a snow covered lake and a 12-inch hole and what do you get? Perfect fishing conditions. At least that’s what seven-year-old, Craig tells me. An avid fisherman for half his life, he proves without a doubt that ice fishing isn’t just for old men in a shack.

Like its warm-weather cousin, ice fishing is a science, which is why many would-be fishermen can’t catch fish. What equipment is necessary? When will the crappies bite? Which bait works best? These are critical questions for anyone hoping to fill their limit.

I propose a 750-word article in your nature or sports department, with a sidebar. And I would provide photographs, according to your technical specifications.

The ice in Northern Wisconsin is still safe into March, and I could submit the completed article within two weeks.

Thank you for your consideration. I have enclosed a SASE and look forward to your response.

My second query was to Budget Travel, for its True Stories section. I was naïve – I didn’t yet realize that submitting to national magazines might be setting my unpublished sights too high. I queried numerous other magazines as well – more than 100 of them within a four-month time frame. And I hooked up with another student writer from Australia. Although her son was much older than my kids, she had worked as a teacher for years and I found we had much in common. We edited each others’ work outside of the course and provided the cheerleading we both needed. Writers need a lot of encouragement during the long weeks with no response from editors – and especially after a never-ending series of rejected queries.

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Part Seven — Spring 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, is now available, from Search Institute Press.

In honor of Mother’s Day and my television debut, I’ve decided to republish my Chicken Soup for the Soul: Mothers and Daughters contribution, with photos.

(Blue Streak, Beartooth’s Pass, circa 1975)

Ten Thousand Miles in Blue Streak

As a child, raised by a single mother, my experience in the 1970’s was different from that of my friends. I was a latchkey kid with more responsibilities than other children my age. But Mom worked hard, saved every penny, and made a comfortable life for us — one that included her passion for travel.
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Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating Mothers and Daughters was finally released today. The anthology features my story, Ten Thousand Miles in Blue Streak. (I’ve also submitted this story for Scribbit’s Write-Away Contest.)

UPDATED TO ADD: Be sure to click over to the Blue Streak story >HERE< and read comment number 24. My mom commented there, and reminisces. So cool!
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“Travel writer” is one of my hats, and I wrote an article for Chesapeake Family Magazine, about Bucktown, Maryland — Harriet Tubman’s hometown.

D and I took a trip there two summers ago, and this article recounts some of the history we learned there. I’ve also included tips about ways to engage your kids in the journey.

Enjoy!

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This essay appeared in over 100 US newspapers in October, and was released March 1, 2007 in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Ten Thousand Miles in Blue Streak

As a child, raised by a single mother, my experience in the 1970’s was different from that of my friends. I was a latchkey kid with more responsibilities than other children my age. But Mom worked hard, saved every penny, and made a comfortable life for us — one that included her passion for travel.
Continue Reading »