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| Biography |
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| In the Beginning |
| I’ve only had two career goals: One was to get a degree [Creighton University in Omaha, NE]; the other was to work for a newspaper. The Des Moines Register and Tribune was a raucous place back in the ‘60s. People rode bikes in the newsroom. They drank lunch out of brown paper bags, smoked religiously and had parties after the first edition of the next day’s Register went to press. Never mind that it was midnight. |
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| I declared I would spend the rest of my life there. Then, I met this guy, got married, and four years after my career was launched, I left the newsroom to have a baby. I intended to go back, but we kept having babies. For several years, my only goal was to get a good night’s sleep. |
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| Home Again |
| On one Valentine’s Day during those sleepless years, my husband gave me an IBM Selectric Typewriter. Strange, since he quit buying presents after giving me an iron for Christmas, and being told, "If you can’t do any better than that, don’t buy me anything at all." |
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| "Is this typewriter a Valentine’s present?" I asked him. "Yes." Smile. "Because?" "Because I thought you would like to start writing again." Smile. "That is really considerate. What made you think that, anyway?" "I thought you might like to start making some money." Still smiling, but in a different way, now. So, I became a free-lance writer, knowing that I could do laundry in between paragraphs. For 20 years, I wrote for pretty much anyone who would hire me - Better Homes and Gardens, Midwest Living, Family Circle, Women’s Sports and Fitness and others. |
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| A Change in Direction |
| Then, in 1991, my friend Karen died of cancer. From that loss emerged my first book, She Taught Me to Eat Artichokes [Sta-Kris, Inc., 1993]. This most beautiful story about women’s friendships has allowed Karen to touch the lives of tens of thousands of women, still to this day. |
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| After Artichokes came out, I packed up and went on tour. Every time I walked in a bookstore, the manager asked, "What’s your next book?" To which I replied, "What next book? I just got done with this one." |
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| Four more books for Sta-Kris followed: Little Lessons for Teachers (paperback, 1995); The Memory Box (1996, recipient of the Mid-America Publishers Association Award); Rhythm of the Seasons - A Journey beyond Loss (1997, with Marilyn Adams, founder of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, a national organization); and When I Think about My Father (editor, 1996). Cumulative sales are 200,000. Both the Father and the Artichoke books were considered for the Oprah Winfrey Show. |
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| There is a BIG difference between being considered for Oprah
| | and being on Oprah. |
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| Moving on without Oprah |
| A joy for me was writing Our State Fair - Iowa's Blue Ribbon Story (Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation, 2000), which chronicles the first 150 years of a great state fair. From a writerly perspective, this project was challenging. No comprehensive history book had been written and, undoubtedly, none other ever will be. So stories left on my cutting-room floor are, most likely, lost forever. And stories in the bold and beautiful coffee table book may eventually hold more sway than they deserve. But the ink’s long dry, and the past is set in stone. |
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| The Education Realm |
| Author Julia Johnston and I have teamed up on three projects. In spring 2007, Barron’s will release Survival Secrets of College Students. This is advice from college students to graduating high school seniors about what to expect when they get to campus. As I interviewed hundreds of college students, I was amazed by how sincere and sincerely nice they were and by how loose college life is today, compared with the ‘60s. Back then, coeds got in trouble for wearing jeans on campus! |
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| We also wrote Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Getting into College [McGraw-Hill, 2004] and For Parents Only: Tips for Surviving the Journey from Homeroom to Dorm Room (Barron’s, 2000). For that book, we conducted roundtable interviews with parents throughout the country. I learned much during our travels, including the fact that Julie listens to the flight attendant’s directions on every single leg of every single flight. |
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| Speaking When You’re Supposed to |
| After Artichokes came out, people asked me to speak to their organizations. I’ve been talking since I was 2, so the transition wasn’t all that difficult. While I’ve never announced that "it’s great to be here in Miami" when, in fact, I was in Minneapolis, I did burst out laughing when I saw myself on huge screens at either end of the dais the first time. That might have been okay if my speech that noon had been funny. |
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| Writing Workshops |
| Lastly, I conduct writing workshops and teach at the University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Festival - the most successful such program in the nation. Whether the participants have been published or are dipping their toes in water for the first time, you just want to pack them up and take them home with you. |
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