💚Ten People Who Have Helped My Career💚

Thanks, Stephanie, for mentioning me in your ten, and making me want to do this, too. 

     Family starting with my parents who taught me to love reading and writing, and who used valued grammar and spelling every day of my life, giving me the foundation I needed when I decided to write. My mother, for listening to me ramble about my dreams, encouraging me always, and reading and praising (although that wasn’t always what I needed most) everything I did. She did point out grammatical and spelling errors, though, even if she didn’t critique me in other ways. Briana Morgan, who read every word of every book and, as a teen, was an enormous help in every way possible. Her grammar, punctuation, spelling, AND ability to find inconsistencies or flaws in time or story lines was unbelievably helpful and impressive for her age and education level. I credit the adults in her life as well as the Jefferson County Public School system. My sister-in-law, Teresa Fancher, who diligently scoured the later books for typos and errors and helped me prepare for self-publishing – and who always encouraged me in everything I did. And the grandchildren, daughters, grandparents, parents, cousins . . . who gave me so much to write about.

     Alyce Skelton for being one of the best writing instructors I’ve known, and who opened my eyes to characterization by asking me what Opal had for breakfast.

    The Alchemy Writing Group (twenty people from Australia, Canada, and the US) who boosted my self-confidence and courage by approving my membership and critiquing word-by-word at least four complete novels as well as bits and pieces of others. And who trusted me to do the same with their work. I will treasure these people forever and never forget some of the stories I read in that group of writers who I hope have since decided to self-publish their literary works that traditional publishers passed over in favor of cookie-cutter, dumbed-down, predictable, less worthy work.

     Jessica Mathis who was both politically astute and educated enough to actually ‘get’ my satire and helped me with a great review and blurb and cover, even though the publisher didn’t use them.

     The Husbands Group (particularly, Susan Desantis and Rebecca Somerhouser) who helped me find my political voice and start enjoying non-fiction, during the days when people read more than a couple of words written across the top of a photo.

     Ugh. That leads to me having to thank a few people that I hate – George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell. I was approached to write on a named blog when someone saw my Bush writing. At first, I wanted to decline because I didn’t want writing to feel like a job, but they agreed to allow me to write what I wanted, when I wanted, with no deadlines or pressure. It was fun while it lasted but the site ended in the big ‘scrub’ of all things anti-Bush, and I ended up on the no-fly list. And, then, there’s the McConnell blog of my letters and his responses. I’m not sure anyone appreciated my McConnell letters as much as I did but that’s okay. I flatter myself and take great pleasure in knowing that I did write letters that demonstrated exactly how much McConnell’s decisions matter in the every day life of the world of people he affected (and still affects, even though I gave up trying when he won his last election). The site still gets hits from around the world daily. Not large numbers of hits, but people are still googling that monster and ending up on my site.

   The men in my life – Doug, Davy, Adolfo, Jess, Terry, Kerry, Alan – who inspired poems, personal essays, love, anger, revelations – enough that, without the brain aneurysm, I probably could have continued to write forever just on what I got from them. Adolfo gets a special mention for giving me permission to write about him. I didn’t need it, but I asked for it because I knew at least one of his friends watched what I wrote and might identify him. I talked to him about my fear that my perception would not always be the same as his and I didn’t want to embarrass, hurt, or anger him in any way. He told me to write anything I wanted, without that fear, and that I could even use his name if I wanted. That felt like a huge gift to me.

     The readers who contacted me to thank me or to say that I had changed their lives. There weren’t many but the few who did made it all feel so worthwhile.

     Music and all the people who made the music that entertained, inspired, and saved me.

     And, last but certainly not least, Debbie Staples. She worked as an editor on AOL and contacted me after seeing a writing submission I had posted. My post stopped midsentence because there was a word limit, to tell you how inexperienced I was. She sent me a message saying she wanted to see the whole story. I told her it didn’t exist yet. I had just started writing. And she stuck with me for a year, reading and critiquing bit by bit as I wrote my first novel. When I was finished, I patted myself on the back, felt like a winner, and stuck it in a drawer. She begged me to shop it out and find a publisher, but I didn’t think that was necessary. I had written the book and I felt complete. A year or so later, she contacted me again to tell me she was starting her own publishing company and wanted my book to be the first she published. She did and published three more after that. Debbie was a pioneer of ebooks. I didn’t believe people would ever want to read on a screen and insisted I wanted paperback. She found a POD company and made that happen for me. I will always love Debbie Staples of SynergEbooks for believing in me.

        

       Bonus #11 - Gather friends.