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One of the richest sources of material

I love march. It’s still wintery but there are those brief moments of spring every so often. People are experiencing spring fever, too. I can tell by the shorts and sandals coming onboard our flights.

I think our everyday lives provide plenty of material to be woven into our writing at a later date. Some of my memories may be a little different since I was the daughter of a photojournalist who brought home all kinds of stories, which he delighted in telling, usually at our dinner table.

In the late 1950s, I was still an elementary school student when my father received an assignment to cover President Dwight Eisenhower’s review of the Mayport Carrier Basin located at the mouth of the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, FL. The president’s visit would not have been complete without a visit aboard the USS Saratoga, pride of America’s carrier fleet at the height of the Cold War. Of course all the naval officers and enlisted men were on deck in their full dress uniforms, and top political and civic leaders were present for the occasion in abundance. Rocco Morabito, another photographer also employed by The Florida Times Union in Jacksonville covered this event with my father.

This was in the day of the Graphlex camera with its popping flashbulbs. My father was standing on one side of the president’s path and Morabito was opposite him. That’s when it happened. One of my father’s flashbulbs exploded. Secret Service agents quickly grabbed my father and escorted him from the event, erroneously thinking he had attempted to assassinate the president.

As I understand it, the picture my father took showed Ike standing tall while his Secret Service agents apparently ducked. Well, he had served as Supreme Commander of all Allied forces in Europe—one of the most powerful generals in world history. What would you expect?

Secret service agents with eisenhower

Though I don’t have the picture my father took (family legend has it that it was confiscated by Secret Service; another version is that was sold to Life magazine), I do have this picture taken by Morabito showing my father just before the flashbulb exploded.

Needless to say, my dad was delighted by the entire event. He had a great sense of humor as well as a great respect for Ike as a historical military leader and President of the United States. In later years, I would hear the stories and see corresponding pictures of my father with President Ford, Johnny Carson, Paul Harvey, Lee Trevino, Elvis Presley, George Hamilton, Jack Nicholas, and Anwar Sadat, just to name a few. In fact, I’m in one or two of those pictures myself.

If you are a writer, possibly one of the richest sources of material at your disposal can be found in your own family’s stories.

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It’s a small world after all . . .

Most readers associate me with my eBook mystery and romance novels; but as I mentioned in an earlier blog (September 24), my first publishing experience was in the traditional printed medium with my “Has Anyone Seen Woodfin?” books and life-size characters. On October 17, I was privileged to visit the classroom of nationally recognized Speech-Language Pathologist, Social Skill Teacher and ASD Staff Trainer Jill Kuzma who uses my Woodfin stories with her students. As Jill tells it, “one of my own precocious little 1st grade students asked where the author lived.   Of course, I turned to the back flap of the book cover to find out.  Well, you can only imagine my excitement to learn that Susan Egner lived less than 5 miles from my school!!   It took me all of about 8 seconds to hop on my email to contact her!  Susan Egner was so gracious and excited to come meet my students the following week and shared a fabulous visit with my special group of kids – complete with Woodfin costumes, an interactive program, and most importantly – she fostered the excitement my students had about meeting a “real” author and reinforcing the message to “be your true self.”

You can read the rest of the story on Jill’s blog under the caption: Meet Woodfin!!! A children’s book to promote social self-confidence and celebrate individuality… Jill continues, “These books are a wonderful addition to any literary library – they can be used to support social/emotional skills as I do in my work, but there are also solid character and setting elements, with a clear story structure to use as an anchor text to teach literacy skills.  Check out the Woodfin website at: http://www.woodfin.cc/books.htm “

Woodfin

I encourage my readers to read more on Jill’s Blog at http://jillkuzma.wordpress.com and to “Like” her on Facebook at this link:  https://www.facebook.com/kuzmaslp

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Life on Mallory Street

When I turned 15, I discovered boys and forgot all about my desire to own a horse. To make it even worse, I fell for the president of the sophomore boys in my high school class. And surprise of all surprises, he fell for me. Wow! He was without a doubt the most popular boy in our class. He was also very nice. Though my parents weren’t thrilled about my going steady, they really liked him. Everyone did.

I spent a lot of solo time in my bedroom writing romantic dribble. It was ghastly; but at the time, I was pouring out the heart of a girl who was experiencing love for the first time. It was a love I can still feel today. I guess you never get over that very first love.

Our house was at the bottom of a hill, one house from the St. Johns River, where the street ended in a small circle so cars could turn around. My bedroom was on the upstairs corner of the house looking up the hill. Seated on my bed, I could watch everything going on in our one-block neighborhood.  And I wrote about it. Even today, I could write a whole book about life on Mallory Street, believe me.

I mentioned that the street ended at the river’s edge, which is just another definition for lovers’ lane. Teenagers who were old enough to drive quite often parked there. Some of the kids on my block and I would sneak down to take a peek. I was shocked and titillated by what was going on in those cars. Remember, my teenage years fell just a few years short of the sexual revolution. Having a solid respect, combined with a little bit of fear, for my father, I knew I would never be parked at the end of my street…or anywhere, for that matter.

But was it ever fun to conjure up the possibilities on paper! The very thought of some of the things I wrote still makes me blush, which by today’s standards, would hardly merit mention. Writing was my answer to some heady emotions that would eventually play themselves out.

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My Passion for Writing

September 30

I think I made the decision to become a writer in the 7th grade. My closest friend at the time, now a published poet, also wanted to be a writer. However, I had one desire that surpassed my desire to write and that was to own my own horse. At the time, I went horseback riding almost every day in the summer with my friend. She had a wonderful quarter horse named “Shorty” on which we rode double.

Not far from the stable was Mr. Tippit’s ranch. He bought and sold horses and always had about 30 or 40 in his pasture. He told us, “If you can catch it, you can ride it.” For free was understood—and that was music to our ears! It usually took us between three and four hours to catch a horse and then another hour to brush all the dirt and burrs from its coat and mane. Picture this in the summer heat of Florida. But it was worth it. That gave us at least another five hours; and if we were lucky and my father was picking us up after work, we’d have six hours to ride. It was like owning our own horse. Some days, however, we never caught a horse.

Anyway, many of the magazines published for kids our age seemed to understand a 13-year-old girl’s love for horses because they were always offering writing contests. The winner would win a thoroughbred. That was beyond our wildest dreams and all the incentive we needed!

The first year, Dash detergent sponsored the contest, and we both won (a supply of Dash detergent)! The next year Ipana toothpaste was the sponsor, and we both won again (a supply of Ipana toothpaste)! The last year we entered, a patriotic organization sponsored the contest; and, you guessed it, we both won…an American flag.

I never won my horse, but I did win a permanent passion for writing.

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Why I Became a Flight Attendant Later in Life

I mentioned that I became a flight attendant rather late in life. I’m sure you’re wondering why. Remember, all of this is in the context of my writing career. If you have visited my website, you know that I have two children’s books published in hardcover. Three months after those books were published, I had the opportunity for them to be considered for an animated television series. One catch: in order to qualify, I was given 30 days to produce a demo featuring the characters in my books. Not a problem. I had some great producers who hit the ground running, found a local animation studio, and the rest is history. Our demo won the offer. However, we needed to raise funding for the first season. A successful season would mean the network would get corporate sponsorship for me.

At the time, I was employed as a marketing director but thought, “Hey, this is the brass ring—accept the challenge!” So I retired from my job, spent a year writing a business plan, and secured the necessary funding commitments in November 2007 (just after the stock market had reached an all-time high).  We agreed to sign checks and get underway in February 2008. Does anyone remember what was happening in the stock market in February 2008? Refresher course: we were in the early stages of what came to be called “The Great Recession.” Investors, including mine, began backing away from prior commitments; and, if you remember, I had retired.

No chance to return to my former position. Suddenly, it seemed as if all the money in the country had gone into lockdown. “Now what?” I asked my friends.

“You should become a flight attendant,” some said.

“Say what?” I said in a tone of disbelief, as I pointed to my white hair.

“Oh, they love people like you,” they said. “And besides, it will give you a chance to meet lots of people and increase the opportunity to find funding for your children’s television series.”

Well, it’s true. I have met a lot of people. None, however, has stepped forward to fund my television series, but a few have offered to make some calls. Since my children’s character was featured as one of ten programming initiatives at a gala event held in the Chicago Field Museum, I continue to hold out hope for my beloved children’s series, “Has Anyone Seen Woodfin?” If you have any ideas, please visit my website at www.woodfin.cc.

In the meantime…I have heard so many stories and met such a diverse cross-section of people aboard my flights that I couldn’t help myself. I had to write about what I was seeing and hearing and experiencing: I had discovered an untapped resource in anecdotes that I knew would work well in adult fiction, so I published my first ebook mystery in 2012. When I wrote my first flight attendant mystery, “Souls On Board,” readers seemed to like it, so I wrote a sequel, “Ground Stopped!” Same reaction.

That was eight books and over 2,000 readers ago, and I haven’t stopped to look back. I’m working hard on the next sequel in the “Souls on Board” series, and I anticipate it will be published by the end of October. I’ve learned that Life offers interesting paths for all of us: some are a bit rocky, some even muddy, but all are exciting. I know mine is.  But a lot happened in my life before this to enrich my writing. Let’s save that for another time.

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Why I Started Writing

When I speak to readers of my books or make appearances, many ask why I started writing. So here goes.

I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, one of three daughters of a newspaper reporter, mostly photographer, for the Florida Times-Union. Having someone in the family in the newspaper business was like having an open channel to everything going on in our hometown. Dinner as a family was not to be missed, especially as a teenager, when I was reaching the age of questioning everything about life.

My father always shared his work stories with us during dinner, and he listened equally attentively to our everyday stories. His stories were exciting, interesting, heartrending, and occasionally weird: the perfect definition of life. His stories intrigued me and at an early age.

I started writing around the 7th grade. My earliest attempts centered on trying to create stories based on my father’s stories. Sometimes all I wanted was a better ending. I also kept journals all my life, filled with events, places, and people whose characters or experiences I would someday draw upon for a story. My closet is stacked full with them.

My mother had her hand in shaping my desire to write, as well. We often sat late into the evening in our Florida room talking not only about the day’s events and the reasons behind some of my dad’s stories, but also about how we might respond, personally, if we found ourselves in similar circumstances. My mother was an incredibly compassionate person. I never heard her speak ill of anyone, ever. Instead, she’d pose two questions: “What would you do in the same circumstances? How would you change things?”

Together, my parents instilled in me the values for living my own life. And in doing so, they gave me the pattern for development of the characters I create—people who face similar challenges and must ask themselves those same questions. How grateful I am for their inspiration. Writing has always been my life’s joy.

Becoming a flight attendant late in life has given me even more to write about, but we’ll talk about that the next time.

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