I’ve known so many people who grew up knowing they were writers. I did not. I only knew I was a reader, so addicted to the written word that I’d read and reread the cereal box at the breakfast table.

It was an accident of life that brought me to writing. Back in 1992, I spent a winter as a ski bum in Park City, Utah, working in a ski rental store. When the season ended, I was looking for a job and applied for one selling advertisements for the local newspaper, The Park Record.

For some reason, the sales manager handed my resume to the news editor who hired me as a reporter, covering the education and business beats. Did I have a journalism degree? No. Did I have published clips? Also no. I had studied history in college, so I submitted a term paper on “The Cult of Relics in the Middle Ages” for my writing sample.

Since then, I’ve worked as a writer and editor in newspapers, including owning a small weekly for a year. I moved on into public relations and publications, magazine writing, newsletters, blogging, and grants. Along the way I became strongly involved in the Wyoming writing community, serving in multiple volunteer capacities with both Wyoming Writers Inc. and WyoPoets — I’m a past president of both. About the time I moved to Wyoming, I also began writing poetry and have seen my work published in journals, chapbooks, and one anthology.

I worked for the Wyoming State Library for more than 20 years in multiple professional capacities, most of which involved writing. In 2005, I earned my Master of Science in Library Science degree from Clarion University in Pennsylvania. Now retired from librarianship and newly on my own, I’m pursuing my long-held dream of making my own way as a freelancer and grant writer.

I want to write the stories I have wanted to tell for so many years and travel to the small, overlooked places. I’d love to have some passengers along for the ride.

Join the journey on my blog.