Redneck Crime

My friend Helen Ginger, writer and publisher of a great ezine for writers called Doing It Write, recently tagged me to share eight things about my writing that few people know. Since I’m not quite world famous (yet), that’s not a tough order to fill. Here goes…

1) Started this illustrious career by writing plays in school in lieu of themes or essays. They weren’t particularly good plays, but I usually could count on an A for originality from teachers sick to death of reading encyclopedic data. For fun, we even staged one or two.

2) Chased the big bucks (not 2 or 4-legged ones, just the good ol’ green stuff) for a few years after college by working in public relations. Yeah, right.

3) Wrote numerous freelance articles for such exciting publications as a ping-pong magazine, a senior citizens’ newspaper, and some corporate newsletters.

4) Played Lois Lane for a while as a reporter and lifestyles editor for a daily newspaper, chasing down such exciting stories as school lunch menus, singings on the grounds, and dairy festivals.

5) Founded LifeSketches, a company dedicated to preserving in various formats the extraordinary stories of ordinary folks.

6) Had a blast working with over 200 veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam to preserve their heroic stories for their families and for the Library of Congress Veterans Project.

7) Balancing my workload now as an entrepreneur, freelance writer/editor, book review website partner, blogger, public speaker, writing teacher, and (in my spare time) event planner.

8 ) My favorite projects today include writing a memoir, Growing Up Redneck, and digging for ridiculous stories for my RedneckCrime.com blog.

Whew! Think I’ll go take a nap now. Thanks, Helen… Without your little nudge, I wouldn’t have realized what a busy gal I am. For more about Helen, who’s probably even busier, check out her blog Straight from Hel.