Although I have been writing for decades, I have not
always been comfortable identifying as a writer. In my mind a writer is someone
who writes well, who writes for a living, or who has gotten paid for his or her
writing. It seems presumptuous to call oneself a writer—it seems to be a
moniker only others can apply.
My first attempts at writing were in school, the
requisite haiku's, essays, and short stories. I made my first attempt at
serious writing after I got married and decided to explore my Irish roots.
After reading Leon Uris’ Trinity I
decided to write a novel about an IRA soldier (terrorist) and the troubles in Northern Ireland. After
about 25 pages I gave up on that novel.
Subsequently, I worked on a novel about a young woman who
lived in Manhattan in the early 80s (or was that a memoir?!). I spent a bit
more time on that, worked up an outline and a few chapters before that too went
into the circular file. Writing took a backseat to motherhood, but after my
second son was born I decided to try again. This time I decided to follow the
advice to “write what you know.” Both my young sons had asthma, so I worked on
an essay for parents on coping with chronically ill children.
I figured I would start small, and write about something
I had experience with, and then branch out to more creative writing. For over a
year I worked on this short piece. The first step was deciding on a topic –
caring for chronically ill children. Then I created an outline, using my own
experience to guide the main points. After I had a rough draft I identified and
interviewed experts in the field. Articles in popular parenting magazines
typically include quotes from experts. My own personal experience would not carry
enough gravitas to sell the article. The interviewing process was long and
sometimes frustrating, but very rewarding. I distinctly remember interviewing
Leo Buscaglia on the phone – back in 1992. He is a psychologist who works with
disabled kids and their parents, and a very wise and sweet man. His quote contributed
to the section on parental guilt: “After thinking logically, parents will
realize they would never have planned anything to hurt their child,” Buscaglia
told me on the phone. After I finished
the article and incorporated the quotes, I added a box of helpful organizations
parents could contact for help.
Once the article was finished, all I needed to do was
find a magazine willing to publish it! Several queries were sent and rejection
letters received, until the day I received an envelope in the mail from American Baby Magazine. What a memorable
day! They liked the article and wanted to publish it. They offered to pay me
$250! I was ecstatic! I remember laughing and crying simultaneously. I had
arrived—I was a writer.
The money was not significant; the magazine was not
prominent; the article was not long. But an editor had determined the content
and quality of the writing was sufficient to pay me to print it in their
magazine. Ten years later I co-wrote a book, and the advance was $2,500.
Although it was ten times as much as my first check for writing, nothing could
match my euphoria when I received my first check for writing.
In addition to 50 boxes of books, I cleaned out my dad’s 10
file cabinets in his office and the garage. I went through all of them, file by
file. As a college professor, he had files on almost everything—think “Google”
in file cabinets. He also had a lot of personal files, including files on the
children and grandchildren. I kept a few of them. I found my first published
article in one marked “KT Writing.”
