A Likely Story: A Blogger’s Biography
Although my writer’s bio says that “Dear Abby, How can I get rid of freckles?” was my first published piece at the age of 11, my writing career officially began the first time I was paid for my writing. I was a full-time young mother at the time who couldn’t afford a subscription to my favorite magazine, “Mothering,” so I wrote an article, which was accepted for publication. Getting paid was a bonus to the subscription I earned.
Jump rope jingles, nursery rhymes, and the songs from the 40’s that my father taught me were some of the early influences that contributed to my love of language, rhythm, and word play. My writing education has been un-orthodox and at times has seemed accidental (or incidental), because writing has never been removed from the rest of my life and has almost always been directly related to issues close to my heart.
After having a cesarean birth, I became an advocate for mothers and babies by writing for a homespun cesarean prevention newsletter that a friend had started. Later, frustrated by the fact that the U.S. was the number one arms seller in the world who helped to arm Saddam Hussein before we went to war with him, I co-founded a local publication called “The Bell: a Call to Peace” with my friend, poet and activist, Alywn Moss.
I was barely 20 when I enrolled in my first creative writing class at Quincy College in Massachusetts while working in a factory that made fire alarms during the day and scribbling poetry notes as I worked. For years I oversaw the art projects and library trips for preschoolers at a day care center, my next job, which is where my love of children’s literature was cemented. Later, I would audit renowned poet Nikki Giovanni’s class at Virginia Tech and be hired by a Blacksburg art publication to interview the first woman poet laureate of Virginia, Ruby Altizer Roberts, who was ninety-two at the time.
While raising my sons, creating and selling my handmade jewelry, I put together booklets of poetry and worked to conquer my fear of public speaking by taking up the mic at local poetry readings. Letters to the editor became political commentaries that were published in the Roanoke Times, The New River Free Press, and at Commondreams.org. Excerpts from letters and emails to my family back home in Massachusetts found there way into articles and essays.
Meanwhile, the majority of my writer’s training ground took place within the pages of “A Museletter,” a homespun community newsletter that is cut, laid out, pasted, and collated by volunteers every month. I first began writing for and co-editing the Museletter when I moved to Floyd, Virginia, in 1986 and my involvement with it continues to this day. In the early days I wrote a monthly home-schooling column, but soon my subjects branched out to include those on gardening, herbs, self-health, woman’s issues, environmental issues, and travelogues. Mostly I contributed poetry, and I still do today. Some of the poetry that first appeared in The Museletter went on to be published in other publications, such as the We’moon Datebook.
When my brothers, Jim and Dan, died in 2001, it was as if all the writing I had done before their deaths was in preparation for what happened next. I wrote a book, which was part a recounting of the last few weeks of my brother’s lives; part a humorous re-telling of growing up in an Irish Catholic family of 11 during the 50s and 60s; and part a chronicle of the day to day living and writing my way through life-altering grief. Initially published locally for family members, the book sold out of its first printing of 300 in little over a month. It went on to be used as curriculum for a grief and loss class at Radford University, spurred a Hull Village reunion in the town where my siblings and I were raised, and is now at the tail end of its 3rd printing.
My next writer’s leap took place in March of 2005 and was called “Loose Leaf: Notes from a Writer’s Journal.” At that time, I was newly retired from providing foster care for an adult with developmental disabilities and was writing mostly political commentaries but was burned out from that kind of writing. Ready to turn over a new leaf, I wanted to have more fun with writing. So, I posted a photo of me in Ireland with a shamrock pinned to my sweater and drew on my Irish heritage to inspire the storyteller in me.
For me, blogging has served many purposes. Because I understand life by translating it into words, I’ve generated a lot of writing. I needed a container and a way to organize and cross-reference it. The rapid-fire pace that blogging requires has helped me develop my skills, which has led to the airing of a number of my essays on WTFV radio and to freelancing stories to The Floyd Press and other places. It also gave me a forum to continue writing about grief and loss and a place to express my love of photography.
Blogging brings out my nutty professor side and appeals to the record keeper in me. I consider my blog to be my writer’s petire dish, my lab where new work is developed and sometimes launched from. It’s also a day-to-day interactive journal that has allowed me to meet and form meaningful friendships with readers and other bloggers from all over the world.
Post Note: The first photo is one of what used to be the first Seeds of Light beadshop in Blacksburg, where I worked for many years. Now it’s a photography studio.
August 10th, 2007 11:25 am
Well, I stopped blogging…then I started again then I lost you…now I found you! YAY! Long time no see!!! How the heck are ya!? 🙂
My Friday Fill in is up and other memes and posts! Hope to see you when you have time. I’m keeping my links section smaller so I can maintain my “regular” visits more this time…AND…I am writing a bunch of different types of topics, etc, not just vegan food this time! 🙂 Happy Weekend!
August 10th, 2007 11:56 am
A likely story…
It is good to read your bio at this point in time, tho I have read your stories for a while now, and always enjoy them. Nice to be “formally introduced”!
Have a great weekend, try to stay cool!
August 10th, 2007 11:56 am
I like the idea of a blogger’s biography. I am going to check out on your links. Michele sent me here.
August 10th, 2007 12:00 pm
Colleen: you certainly have had a lot of experience in different genres of writing and I expect,like me you have found it therapeutic, apart from satisfying one’s creative urge. Makes me want to read more of your stuff which I hope to do soon. Here from Michele’s but I’ll be back
August 10th, 2007 1:13 pm
a likely stoory indeed!
today i scouted out some other italian, french and gourmet eateries for our next trip up here together. There are posters up for another move0n march in sept.
Well i’m off to Btown to see the orioles play your beantown boys.
xoxo
August 10th, 2007 1:15 pm
I love your little notes, joeyk. It’s like drawing a heart on a tree and scratching my name in it.
Do the Red Sox still have long hair?
August 10th, 2007 3:22 pm
A fascinating writing history Colleen…You have done so very many things and written so much that has been published, in one form or another….I think it is fantastic! Keep On Keeping On, my dear….you are a treasure!
August 10th, 2007 3:52 pm
I love reading about your journey in writing.
Your book is amazing. This August I am looking at Grief as a Blessing and what that means to me.
August 10th, 2007 3:54 pm
Colleen: I am honoured to be included in your circle of bloggers. It’s also great to read what your biography and get a sense of the breadth of life experiences you’ve had – no wonder your writing speaks to me on so many levels. Thank you for sharing! Have a great weekend, XINE
August 10th, 2007 4:02 pm
Nice self portrait, btw! 😉
August 10th, 2007 6:16 pm
Just been reading more about the writing and publishing of your book and I wondered – as i also write about my life and family if you had had all positive feed – back from your family?
August 10th, 2007 7:43 pm
Good question, Pat. I’ve been asked it before.
At first I felt self-conscious about sharing so openly, and I probably would have taken anything out if one of my family members had felt uncomfortable with it. As I recall, I was sharing some of the stories as I was writing them with my siblings and they were urging me on, especially my sister Sherry, who was acting as one of my editors. Although the book dealt with some family issues and made mention of a few personal demons of some of us, it is mostly about a story about love and the strength of a family. It’s honest and I think my family members got that. It was their story too. But it isn’t THE story. If anyone of my siblings were to tell the story, it would be from their perspective.
There was only one detail that I felt I needed to get permission to share about my brother John, and I got it.
My mother was funny. She had read the typed pages and when I later told her I was going to get it published, she thought I had written ANOTHER book and then wondered why anyone would want to read about our family. In the end, I think she has enjoyed the attention and how it was received by others. She told me that a woman who had read it approached her in church and said, “Barbara, you have such a beautiful family.”
August 11th, 2007 1:53 am
James Taylor, Nikki Giovanni, and the book about your brothers… and that is just the start of your bio. The thing that rings loud and clear through this whole post is that you have always done writing. You have kept the pen to paper or the keys to the computer screen and that is what we all need to do. Writing is about writing. It sounds like you have found many authentic ways to do that!
August 11th, 2007 3:03 am
Thank you for that Colleen. It’s never easy to keep everybody happy and people remember things differently, so you are to be congratulated for doing something I’m sure they are proud of and that must be a comfort to you all. Many of my family are no longer here, but I hope they wold feel the same.
August 11th, 2007 8:43 am
What an interesting journey in writing. The style of your bio reads like a book in its own right!
August 11th, 2007 11:18 am
Colleen! Thank you for the lovely waterfall. Only fools refuse late bday presents. 😉 The photo has been added with a comment.
~S
August 11th, 2007 3:48 pm
I really like this bio too and actually have lived it with you…..what an honor indeed. xo
August 11th, 2007 3:54 pm
Sherry, And I didn’t even mention the hours spent in my room as a teenager writing poems and testing them out on you.
August 11th, 2007 8:56 pm
I like your style. I’m a BoSox fan too! I grew-up in Newton, in a middle-class Catholic family in the 60′-70’s, sound familiar?
I have a brother & sister who are extremely gifted artistically. Personally, I have trouble coloring inside the lines. My talent is story telling (writing), which quite obviously is a great talent of yours.
I loved what I have read & look forward to reading much more of your writings in the future, including your book!
btw Michele sent me.
August 11th, 2007 9:22 pm
Nice to know how your writing evolved.It seems like a natural progression for you and blogging is perfect for you. Glad to have read so many of your posts!
August 12th, 2007 3:15 pm
You have had an interesting journey in this life Colleen. And you make a damn good bio! I hate doing these things….I am always afraid it will sound cocky or braggy when I talk about the good things I’ve done so it is hard for me. Someone told me recently there is a difference in being cocky and being confident but it is still hard.
August 12th, 2007 3:54 pm
I know what you mean, Deana. It’s the archivist recorder in me that likes to overview life and see how each step leads to the next. As I do it with my own life, I understand myself better and become more self-accepting. Although I’ve been plagued with insecurities all my life, they are coupled with an underlying trust in myself and my instincts, and that’s the part I want to validate. I consider it part of my healing therapy. There comes a point when that’s the life work in front of us.
I think charting the journey of a life is a most amazing thing. We all have such good stories to tell.
August 21st, 2008 12:49 am
Your bio is very inspiring.
I am a writer who struggles with rejections and hope one day I have as many stories published as you.
Any advice?
August 21st, 2008 4:38 pm
Just keep writing. Be who you are. The more you do anything the better you get at it. I believe that whatever we keep plugging away at eventually bears fruit.
May 29th, 2009 4:02 pm
Colleen
Greetings from the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland.
Love the notes and musings as I have been reading them for several days now.
My family and I are heading to USA next Monday starting off a 3 week holiday in Washington DC and then visiting some Irish American cousins in Doylestown PENN, Baltimore MD and Long Beach NY.
But what really is exciting us is heading down to Floyd Virginia on June 5th to sample some music in the Country Store. Thanks for all your beautiful observations and comments on the simple things in life.!!!!
Hopefully we may bump into you when in Floyd.
Ger Brid Ronan & Ciara O Byrne
PS
Some images of our famous Hill of Tara which is 5 minutes away from our home.
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22HILL+OF+TARA%22&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=3D0gSpGYE-GrjAeU_ojQBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title
My favourite place of all Inishbofin the Island of the White Cow where I get lost in time with my camera gear !!!!
http://www.inishbofin.com/
Just thought you like to see my part of the world !!!
Take care
Ger
October 11th, 2013 8:42 am
[…] No one giggled or whispered. The students actually listened and seemed interested in hearing my writer’s story. It was a small Literary Art Project class at the new Blue Mountain High School, where the […]