Blog Posts by Susan Egner
Inspirations, thoughts by Minnesota author and flight attendant
I had been offered the possibility of airtime for my children’s book on the Chicago PBS station but I needed to assist with some of the funding. Some, HAH! We’re talking millions. I didn’t have a clue where I would even start. You don’t just knock on someone’s door and say, “Hey, would you like to invest a million in a kids’ television show?” I had recently retired and a friend suggested I become a flight attendant to meet people. It’s great to have friends that think you can do anything, isn’t it? My response? I pointed to my white hair and said, “Hello?” to which she replied, they love people like you; reliable, comfortable with a lot of different people, enjoys a lot of different people, curious about people, likes to serve. I was hired the next week.
I fell in love with books when I was a very little girl. In the summer, I would walk three blocks to the library. Only the walk limited the number of books I checked out, usually five. Even as I read stories, I thought of stories: About family members, neighbors, friends, teachers, and mostly, people I observed from afar. The latter became critical later in life as a newspaper reporter. But much, much later in life when I became a flight attendant, it gave me the basis for so many stories. Passengers offer countless details that work great in character development, and sometimes in their stories themselves. Some of their thoughts/ideas require more research and reading. It’s the same adventure I experienced as a girl, except reversed, instead of reading, I’m doing the writing. What an adventure.
He’d love to visit your school and change colors just like in his story. Check out his website at www.woodfin.cc