About Me: Writer

For years, I have fantasized about becoming a writer.  Recently I realized that I already am one.  Not only that, I’ve been a writer for a very long time.  It started in 1965 at Auburn University.  I volunteered to be a reporter for the Baptist Student Newsletter.  I was also taking a class in Russian history.  What I learned in that class inspired an essay that was published in the BSU newsletter.  The following week my professor stopped me after class to tell me how much he had enjoyed reading the essay.  I was so shy.  I can remember muttering “Thank you.”  That was it.  I didn’t write any more.

                In the late 70’s I wrote a sermon for the annual Women’s Sunday at my church.  Somehow, a copy of it found its way to Nashville, where the editor of the Baptist Student magazine read it.  He called me and invited me to submit an article. I did.  It was published, and I got paid.  But, the editor eventually lost his job because that issue of the magazine was too “liberal.”  There was backlash for me personally.  I was labeled a “secular superwoman” by my denomination.  I didn’t try to publish for pay again.

                During this same time period I served as editor of the Virginia Association of School Psychologists, for which I wrote articles and editorials.  One of the editorials was published in the newsletters of other states.  I still didn’t think of myself as a writer.

                There have been other essays.  One of them appeared in The Birmingham News in 2004 and one in The Richmond Times-Dispatch in January of this year.  Then there was the essay about the downside of Special Education that was published in the Fall 2011 issue of the newsletter of the School Psychology Academy, a branch of the Virginia Psychological Association.  There were booklets, too.  Two of them were distributed by Chesterfield County Public Schools.

                Then, there is the “who-done-it" that I’ve been working on off and on for thirty years.  It’s been at least a decade that I’ve wanted to write “A Half Bubble Off-Level” to explore the topic that gets me most excited.  There is a lot of information out there to help people stay healthy physically.  Not so much so for people who want to stay healthy mentally.  I would like to share what I know about that subject.  Hence, the blog.  I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it.