Words

I wrote elaborate stories as a kid. Poems, too. Love letters to teachers and friends and my parents. I wrote unabashedly until I knew better.

I had excellent grammar and penmanship and won spelling bees in grade school, and was very proud of these things. I read voraciously; no night ever ended in my early years without at least one book being read to me and my brother, most often by my dad. I remember, vividly, crying when I found out in one of my first days of kindergarten that I would not in fact be learning how to read that year, that reading began later, in first or second grade. My brother marched me over to his second grade teacher, who gave me a book. I wonder if she knew how important that gesture was? It lit my fire, that’s for sure.

I lost interest in being good somewhere in middle school and only gained it back midway through college, after a few tries at wrong schools and wrong programs and much money and patience (the patience part, maybe not so much) from my parents.

It was in one of those wrong schools/wrong programs that I found myself in a marketing class writing and designing an ad campaign and realized where I wanted to be. I switched schools and studied journalism and fiction writing and have never been more sure of a decision before or since.

I graduated college with a BA in journalism in 1991. At that time, I was certain I would end up on a news desk or as a copy editor at one of the big papers in Chicago, and if not there, at one of the magazines or at the very least at a PR company. After six months of cold calling, sending resumes (we mailed them or dropped them off in those days), interviews that fizzled, a stack of rejection letters and a car that was near being repossessed, I got a job in corporate communications at a greeting card company where I wrote, edited, designed (it was called desktop publishing back then), made lasting friends, and learned how to get on in an office.

I raised kids and grew a career that moved to the publishing industry where I honed my skills as a copy writer and then as an editor and project manager. I then landed a job working from home as a content editor, overseeing a website and producing books. I’ve moved on from this job but have worked from home since, either as a freelancer or now in my current job, editing and overseeing all copy in a subscription-based business services website (and I love it).

I write a bit for my work now, but am always looking for venues for my personal writing, which is why I’m here.