xxxThe following writer has been kind enough
to share her story with us.
xxxIf you would like
to contribute your story and photo to me, email them to:
xxxrob@easywaytowrite.com
xxxThank you.
xxxLorraine
I don’t remember when I
started writing, but I do recall writing a wonderful
story about fairies when I was in the fourth grade.
It was so good another kid copied it and claimed it for
their own, which started quite a fuss! In sixth
grade I won an essay contest with a cash prize. In
high school I wrote articles and poetry for the school
newspaper and my mum raved to all who would listen about
what she thought was great poetic talent.
I wanted to be a writer, but my family convinced me
somehow that writing wasn’t a ‘real
job’. I considered journalism once, when I was
eighteen, but somehow friends and family talked me out of
it. I really can’t remember how or why, but I
regret letting them. Eventually, I guess I accepted
the edict of the ‘older and wiser’ - that
writing was something to do in my spare time, for my own
amusement. It wouldn’t pay the bills!
When I was twenty-five, at home with three young
children, and a little tired of conversing mainly with
toddlers and the kitchen sink, I splurged on a
correspondence course in writing through the YWCA and I
loved it. The following year, the Women’s Day
published an article I wrote titled “Time for an
International Motherhood Year” and paid me the
princely sum of $75. (Well, it was a princely sum
1976!) My husband submitted that article. I
had written it and put it in a drawer. He
didn’t tell me he sent it in, and I almost fainted
when the sub-editor of the magazine called me on Easter
Saturday to ask for a photograph and tell me they were
running it in the Mothers’ Day edition.
I’m not sure which of us was most confused by my
question about how she got her hands on an article I had
never submitted, but I bless my husband every day for his
support. Without him, I might never have seen my
words in print.
Writing was a low priority during a period of slaving at
less appealing jobs to keep my kids fed and school fees
paid, until about twenty years ago. Our family was
in financial crisis and I needed some quick cash. I
was working in the software industry at the time, and I
came up with an idea for a correspondence course in
visual programming. I advertised a 1500 page course
(not yet written) for $1400 a copy, and was stunned at
the response. “Small problem, my dear,”
said hubby. “There’s actually no course
to supply.” So, I wrote one. It took 15
months. I told buyers I would take a deposit and
ship them a lesson each month and charge their credit
card as I shipped each module. I worked around the
clock to produce the lessons. They loved it.
Ultimately, I made a tidy profit, and I convinced myself
that you CAN, in fact, make money as a writer.
Several software manuals and lots of grant applications,
business plans, investment memorandums, and marketing
copy followed, and now I run a business writing service
under the Rainbowriter banner (www.rainbowriter.com). I have ghostwritten
books on topics from business and taxation to body
building, home renovation, and child health, and I am now
working on a few non-fiction titles of my own.
Last year, I produced my first children’s book,
Melanie’s Easter Gift (www.melanieseastergift.com), written initially for my
grandchildren but then I published it and donated the
proceeds to Leukaemia research.
I’m working on a novel now, and I’ve written a
number of short stories that one day I might do something
with. I enjoy entering short story contests, and
hope to one day actually win one.
Writing is a passion. I do it for love, not money,
but I appreciate the checks and look forward to more of
them.
As I approach retirement, I look forward to spending much
more time writing. I have plenty of stories to
tell, but my real ambition is not to tell my own
tales. I want to travel and meet people and write
their stories. In particular, I want to tell the
rich and wonderful stories of bushmen, miners, stock and
station hands, and soldiers who are the essence of
Australia. I have no interest in the famous.
I want to tell the remarkable stories of working-class
families who struggled for survival through droughts and
floods and cyclones; those who lost sons in war,
daughters in childbirth and infants in cruel accidents,
yet still always managed a smile and a joke to cheer
others in times of trouble. I want the next
generation to get to know the extraordinary
‘ordinary’ people who made this great country
what it is today.
I love words! If you use them well, they have
enormous power – to win battles; to drive social
reform; to inspire monumental achievements; to restore
peace where there is turmoil; to build faith and hope,
love and courage.
In the words of the great writer, Tom Stoppard:
"I don't think writers are sacred, but words are.
They deserve . . . respect. If you get the right ones in
the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make
a poem which children will speak for you when you're
dead."
Somewhere in my ramblings, I hope to succeed in putting
the right words in the right order to influence people to
be just a little kinder to their fellow man, and to have
just a little more respect for the resources that sustain
life on this earth. And I hope to make a poem that
my grandchildren will speak for me when I’m
dead… so that they will truly know who I am, what I
believe in, and what kind of men and women I hope for
them to be.
Give a young child in your life a very special gift
this Easter - a gift that saves lives. Melanie's
Easter Gift is a beautiful and unique picture book
and a delightful educational story for children aged 4 to
8. Just $19.95 per copy. All author profits
go to the Leukeamia Foundation of Queensland (Australian
sales) or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation (overseas
sales). Go to www.melanieseastergift.com, or call 07 3342
4047 to order.
Please help save lives by forwarding this message to
friends and colleagues. Thank you for your support.
For effective,
memorable, and accurate copy that sends exactly the right
message, and makes precisely the right impression...
I don’t remember when I
started writing, but I do recall writing a wonderful
story about fairies when I was in the fourth grade.
It was so good another kid copied it and claimed it for
their own, which started quite a fuss! In sixth
grade I won an essay contest with a cash prize. In
high school I wrote articles and poetry for the school
newspaper and my mum raved to all who would listen about
what she thought was great poetic talent.