Early days as a writer. Check out that computer system.
This is my first blog entry in a month. Dang. I was supposed to do one once a week, every Sunday. Another resolution bites the dust (see my first blog entry). What can I say? Life happened.
Except that is a cop-out. It’s not like I have been so inundated with the cares of this world that I have not had time to think about my blog. I’ve had lots of ideas, like The Masters… or Our Easter Curse… or My Hunger Games disappointment… Heck, I even got a page and a half on Coaching a sport… until I faded away.
Stephen King says a writer writes. That’s his sole criteria. When I was younger, I read an interview with him where he explained his regimen: he writes for three hours a day 362 days a year (he skips Christmas, his birthday, and the Fourth of July). I think I had already had my first book published when I read that interview, but I wanted to be more prolific, so I decided that for one summer (teachers have summers off), I would adopt his schedule. I think I lasted about six days. I just didn’t have three hours of writing every day in me.
I am a late bloomer. When I was 29 years old, I was working as a supply clerk in a hospital, Karen was pregnant with Bethany, and it finally hit me that I was going to need to be employed for most of the rest of my life. Supply clerking wasn’t very challenging, and it didn’t pay much. So what did I want to do? I thought I’d like to teach and I’d like to write. I went back to college, became an English/Education major, and graduated in two and a half years.
I am not a writer. I am a teacher who writes. There is not a doubt in my head that teaching has been my calling. Finding your calling is very important because it gives structure and purpose to your life—and it pays the bills. Karen was called to be a teacher too. We’re lucky because being teachers fits marriage so well. My son Zachary has found his calling, and I believe Nathan is finding his. I suspect that Bethany is still looking…but she has started back to school, which is a good step.
This has been my 31st year of teaching. I intend to teach two more. So, you see, I’m transitioning. And I learned in Stephen King’s excellent book On Writing (best book about being a writer I’ve ever read) that he made up all that writing regimen stuff—it was a lie! So maybe there’s hope for me. The urge to write is growing stronger and stronger. And I’m not doing that badly. I have a website with three of my re-worked novels available as eBooks, I’ll have another this summer, and I’ve written ten (now eleven) blog entries since the middle of January. Because that’s the bottom line—like Stephen said, a writer writes. It’s all about the pen meeting the page. There’s only one thing I need—you. A writer longs for a reader. The train to my next calling is leaving the station. Hop aboard.
Mr. Malmgren.….I am so happy that you are double dipping in the ‘calling’ department! I agree! You were born to be a teacher and I am glad to see you are living out another of your talents. You are giving me hope that double dipping (in this capacity) is not greedy, but encouraged! Keep writing, as I remain a reader.…
hi elizabeth — i just discovered that i can go back and respond to people who posted on my blogs! thanks for reading on my website. how is the acting/producing thing going? i just came across a business card you gave me when i saw you at HEB several years ago.
Glad to see you’re writing again! It gives me inspiration! Someone named Frank Kavenaugh has completed a book, btw. The writing group has heard several chapters, and I was spellbound from the first chapter! (It helped that it was about the last game of the 60’s World Series with my fave the Pirates!) I can’t wait to read it all! I read all of your Senior Trip on my iphone on nights I couldn’t sleep. (I like solid books still, but when I get ebooks, I load them onto the phone so I don’t have to wake Bill up when I have insomnia.) I’m looking forward to getting the others and hope I can read them on my phone!
hey nancy — i just discovered i can go back and respond to people who posted on my blog. yes, i just talked to frank last week. we are supposed to get together for lunch sometime this summer. i am trying not to die of envy that both of you have retired now. i do have one little favor: could you go to goodreads.com (you can get there from my website) and post a little one sentence review of the Senior Trip book? my daughter tells me that is the best source for spreading the word about your work. thank you in advance!