Writing, I've Been Writing

I have been writing for many years.  In grade school I wrote for the McKinley Grade School paper.  It was typed on special paper that could by dittoed for other students to read.  In junior high I wrote for the Byers school paper during Miss Mapelli's English writing class.  I wrote for the South High Confederate and in college, I was news editor for the Coloradoan. For obvious reasons, I was a journalism major.  I never made my living writing for a newspaper, but I did write news releases for the CU News Service.  My writing continued for the Colorado Episcopal Women, for the League of Women Voters and for church newsletters.

In 2006, long after these early writing responsibilities, John and I were retired and began volunteering and traveling.  To keep our family up to date with where we were and what we were doing, I started this blog.  I don't know if many of the family read the blog--I know 2 or 3 of them did. Some blog posts attracted 50 to 60 readers, today it is 30 or 40.  

I no longer blog as frequently, but these blogs are, in effect, our scrapbooks.  Each year I submit them to a company, Shared Book,  that publishes them in hard-bound books.  This week, we received the book of 2021 blogs. I   feel pretty good when I look at how many books I have written!

Here I am, appreciating how many books I have published.  The book in the front of the pile with the picture of that cute little girl--me at about age 3--is the story of my life, Not What I Planned, Even Better.

Like I said, my journalism professor would be very proud.

Writing, Writing, Writing

I have been writing for years and years and years.  It all began in grade school, writing for a small newsletter.  In junior high, I received my first byline--on a story in the school newspaper.  The love of writing continued in high school, where I was on the staff of the school paper--the South High Confederate.  In college, I majored in journalism and worked on the Colorado Daily.

After graduation, the writing continued. I was an intern for the Longmont Times-Call, I wrote for  church newsletters and edited the Episcopal Church Women's page in the Colorado Episcopalian.  When we began RVing, I decided to blog about our life.  Then I learned I could have the blogs printed in a book.  Just look at the stack!

The blog books are filled with color photos, so they became our scrapbooks.

                                                   

About three years ago, I began working on writing the stories of my life. John had already been attending the life story classes here in our winter resort home. When he published his own life story, he encouraged me to do the same thing.

Here I am, holding the proof copy of that story, Not What I Planned:  Even Better.  I am so excited to get it done!  I can add it to the stack.

When I wrote in my blog about completing the print version, Gumo commented he would read it when it came out in the Kindle version.  Guess what, I did it!  Not without a struggle.  That format requires a different format.  You can see both versions for sale on Amazon in this screen shot.