There were, in fact, two of them [teachers who influenced]. The first would have to be my high school English teacher, Mrs. Kremer. She was young and pretty and quite liberal, now that I think of it. In her class we heard FDR’s speeches and we read Arthur Miller’s The Crucible–ostensibly about the Salem Witch trials, but really a parable about the McCarthy Hearings and the Red Scare–and she made sure we knew that. Mainly, she loved good writing and she shared the things she loved, so I came to love what she loved and my fire was LIT! She read passages from contemporary writing that threatened to make me cry in class. Most English classes in the 1950s centered on the classics—so boring to a teenager. I remember that she was supposed to teach ‘Silas Marner’ and she threw it out for something else–and did it with such flourish: Ha! Gone! You can thank me later! (Oddly enough, I can’t remember the book that took its place.)
My second such teacher was an instructor in Junior College who wore an earring in one ear (long before it was a thing). He was a white man who wore dashikis and orange tennis shoes and was a bit of a buffoon, but he introduced me to Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor and Joseph Conrad and Langston Hughes. We had to write in his class—he didn’t care what, he didn’t grade just as long as we were writing. And if Mrs. Kremer got the ball rolling, this guy (can’t even remember his name) made me a player.
I love the remoteness, the feeling that this is 'somewhere else'. The terrain and the people are unique, as is the language, and when I'm here I'm a part of that. When I go back to the city it feels alien now and I'm always in a hurry to come home.
When I move from here, which will be soon, I'll still be Up North, just below the bridge, but this is where my heart is. Always.
I wanna be the first to congratulate you! And married at eighteen? Isn't that what girls did back then when they got out of high school? (I mean, I wouldn't know because I was born at the tail end of the 50's.) But when we tell people my wife was 22 when we got married, they think it's too young. My mother was 22 when she got married, but that's because my dad insisted they wait until after the war, which made a lot of sense since he was in the Underground. (That's what they called the Resistance.) Enjoy your day!
Thank you, Ben. Yes, getting married at 18 was insane! Best thing I ever did. We had 66 years together and produced three wonderful adults who are all now well past middle age. And I have three delightful grandchildren who seem to think I'm pretty special.
Congrats on the magic 1,000! Very exciting, and you are deservedly proud. And I do have a question but it's as a book author. I know people read my books. I'm not sure how many. I've had some nice reviews. I have ratings on Amazon, usually 4 and 5 star (Extra question: why do the trolls look at a book with 25 4 and 5 star ratings and leave a ONE star rating and no review? If you hated the book, I'd really like to know why!). I get pretty decent Kindle Unlimited page reads ( I do not have all my books on KU, but rotate them). Huge problem: marketing with limited means. I mean, REALLY limited. Well, I keep telling myself it's fine, I don't write to get rich (or even pay my bills...that ain't happening!) or famous (I do appreciate that my character Augusta McKee seems to have a respectable number of fans). I guess my best bet is bite the bullet and be grateful I sell some books every month botth on line and with the local organizations that carry my books. Mainly I post promotions on my FB pages (personal and professional). Any suggestions as to what else I can do that is free or at least wouldn't take food out of my kitty's mouth?
Thanks, Susan. Well, as you can tell I'm absolutely no expert on marketing, but I think you couldn't go wrong by building your presence here at Substack. We're essentially a writers community and there are many fine fiction folk working together to prop each other up.
@S.E Reid is one of them. She's a huge help and a fine writer, and I know you two would get along!
Let me know if you decide to climb aboard. I'll do everything I can to make it easier for you. ❤️
Thanks, Mona. It seems somehow I already have picked up a few followers on Substack, so I'll give it a try. I'm all for supporting my fellow writers, by the way! We have a nice local group of female authors here in the Poconos that actually have developed a publishing co-op, which I really like.
Do you have any kind of presence here on Substack? If so, I'd like to follow you. And do consider looking around for fiction writers on Notes. They're a great bunch!
It's kind of a writers' desert up here in the boonies and I've never stopped missing my band of merry women writers. It means so much to have buddies like that.
Wahoo Ramona!!!! This is fantastic and wonderful and deserves cake. A thousand subscribers is a massive milestone!
I haven’t been around too long but it seems like your writing keeps getting better and better. It gets deeper and personal and very funny! It is enriching. So I guess one question I have is is there any one thing you would attribute to this shift?
My second and main question is what is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
I do feel my writing is getting better, and I think it's because I have time now. I'm living alone in God's Country, I'm not watching cable news as much, the distractions are far fewer, I'm getting older than old and I'm feeling freer. And I think I have to thank Substack for much of it. Between the newsletter and Notes I have a platform, a comfortable platform, and I'm easing up on any anxiety. That's it, I guess.
As for the bravest thing I've ever done... Hmm. I don't think I've ever been truly brave. I've taken chances, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but I don't see any of it as bravery. Sorry.
Hmm, given that you chose to stay on your island over winter I think you likely choose small acts of courage often. Living with loss requires many acts of courage and, based on your questions above, marching into two different newspaper offices to ask for a job without qualifications demands courage also. Many acts of daily bravery!
LOL. If I wrote a memoir I'd have to make stuff up in order to fill an entire book. I've forgotten more than I remember! These things come to me at odd moments and I have to struggle to remember the details.
It's the most embarrassing ones I remember with exquisite detail. 😏
I've got hundreds to go before I reach 1000, so thank you for modeling that this is A BIG DEAL and when I get there I get to celebrate. I'm so happy for you!
Here's a question for you, since you seem to have a history of meeting famous writers... Who's your favorite writer you've ever met? What's that story?
Asha, I don't know you well enough to write this, but that's not enough of a deterrent for me. I had a wonderful and needed giggle over here at reading "I will see your Wa-Hoo..." Maybe the double entendre isn't obvious to others, but I think I've already established that I'm apt to live on the edge of etiquette. I'm raising a glass to you and Mona!
I really haven't met that many, but I think Elmore Leonard had to be a favorite. I had a chance to interview him twice, and I'd met him at a few parties--and of course, that introduction (!!), and every time he impressed me with how casual he was about his own fame.
It may be that he worked at that in order to make everyone around him comfortable, but he didn't have to. That was the thing. Everyone wanted to fawn over him and he wasn't having it. He hated that, and he had a way of finessing those people into accepting him as one of their own. He made it fun to relax with him.
Now, if you asked me which writer I HATED from the first moment I saw him, it would have to be Gordon Lish. What a colossal ass. As president of Detroit Women Writers, I had to wine and dine him at a writers conference once, and he pranced around in his damn ascot, pretending to be hurt that we all didn't make a fuss over his woeful tales about persistent psoriasis, and then he made fun of our uncultivated choices of wine and cheese.
Then I ran into him again at Ragdale, where he'd been invited by an apparently clueless board of directors to pull his "Big NYC editor" scam on a bunch of rich wannabee writers who had nothing better to do with their money than to be insulted by the man they thought might make their wildest dreams come true.
Yay, Ramona! Huzzah! 🙌 So, because resilience and the need to be resilient is on my mind, where did you find your resilience as a writer? How did you keep going? Here’s another question: what’s your favorite bird?
Ha! I often wonder myself how I kept going. In those years when I was publishing the most, my life, when I look back on it, was a mess. My mom was dying, my dad was in the early stages of dementia, I had three children and a grandchild at home, and my husband was traveling for his job at least 300 days out of the year.
My writing was my lifesaver, and so were my writer friends. I was deeply involved with Detroit Women Writers, a professional organization started in 1900, when newspaper women in Detroit were denied access to the press club so they decided to form their own. It built over the years and by the time I was accepted almost every known female writer in Michigan belonged--including Judith Guest and Joyce Carol Oates.
It felt big and I needed to produce. And my friends couldn't have been more generous. Even with everything going on at home I took time for myself--and that was new for me. For four years in a row I spent two weeks at Ragdale, an artist colony in Illinois. I was a writer there. Nothing else. And it saved me, too.
Now I'm pretty unencumbered and I want to give back. That's why I'm doing this. I had no idea I would love it so much, but I do.
And my favorite bird is the chickadee. She flits and sings and comes close and it almost feels like we could be friends. She doesn't bother anybody. She's never a danger. She seems...happy.
Ramona, I love hearing about Detroit Women Writers - I want to interview you about that at some point - and i know exactly what you mean about writing being a lifesaver. Life with people is always messy, often chaotic, but it is the thing that feeds my writing, too - do you find that?
And the chickadee! The state bird of Massachusetts- and I always feel such joy when one will alight on my hand to take a sunflower seed.
I'll be happy to tell you all I know about DWW but I'm no longer involved and I'm afraid I haven't kept up since moving to the boonies. Though some of my old friends are still my old friends.
About my messy life feeding my writing--yes, in the sense that I needed something else that felt fulfilling. Not that it was terrible--it wasn't--it was chaotic and exhausting at times, but nothing about it made me want to throw it all away. Not a chance!
Until Ed died, I rarely if ever wrote about my personal life. None of my readers ever knew the names of my husband or parents or children. But my personal life surely had an affect on my more personal writing, even, maybe especially when I went full-force political.
Because I was so entrenched with my family, and because I loved them so, much of my political zeal came from what always felt like an urgent need to protect them. I could then project it to protecting others who needed it, and my liberal roots began to take center stage.
I don't know if I could have devoted that much time to trying to save the world in later years if I hadn't had my own family to remind me of how precious it all was--and how close we were coming to losing it all.
I think every writer is forced to draw on their own lives in order to make sense of why they're writing and why they must keep on doing it. It becomes more than a habit, it becomes a necessity.
Indeed, this all rings so true - and if I did interview you, it would focus on your time involved with the DWW, because I think such women’s organizations, largely unsung, indicate just how important it is to find and build community as writers. I’ll get back to you about all that, but this morning, after a difficult week, I find your responses about resilience quite inspiring 😘
Pottery, mainly. I learned to throw on a wheel and I loved it, but I loved the history and the art of ceramics in any form. I fell in love with it so much I thought for a while it might be my calling, but writing seemed to be shouting at me, so...
I have two beautiful pieces by John Glick on my mantel. I met him at his studio in Farmington Hills and was just awestruck by his work. I remember how special those days of throwing pots were to me, but I only have one piece to show for it. I gave all the rest away. Not that they were that good. They weren't. But my relatives seemed to like them. 😉
My art teacher in our town does ceramics. She has done many beautiful and clever works, my favorite being a plate of macarons that looks good enough to eat.
Congrats are getting so close to that milestone. Have little doubt you'll reach it within days. I love your perspective on maturity and being free to write whatever and whenever without distractions. Since leaving my college fine art teaching position 9 years ago, I have slowly reached the point of feeling free to create art whenever and however I wish. Writing entered the picture more consistently along the way as well. Being free to experiment with the processes of making art/writing and discover my truer self along the way is beautiful. Thanks for sharing yourself with all of us.
Thanks, Michelle. I love your 'Artist's Journey'. Your artwork is gorgeous!
I think the revelation that it's okay to write freely comes hard for some of us. We're so used to being uptight about our writing, as if every word has to mean something or we just might have to throw it out.
Thank you so much! My writing process is parallel to my mark-making process. Free in the beginning to get it all out in the open, reflection, editing, subtraction, addition, more reflection, etc. The real freedom comes when I send them all out into the universe, so I can start the process again. Agonizing and invigorating at the same time!!
Yes, that's what makes the whole process so addictive! We start out never knowing where it will lead and when we get to that place where it feels right, no matter how long it takes, it's like climbing a mountain to take in the view. The thrill is well worth the challenge.
Congratulations! I am so happy for you, and happy to be learning from you and connecting with a fellow Michigander over the magic of the internet. So what is the best time of the summer to visit the UP? And can we see the Northern Lights in the summer? Because that's my summer 2025 goal 😊
Thanks, Sarah. For summer, I think the best time is later in July. The black fly season is over (most of June) and the rains of August haven't hit yet. My own favorite time to visit the UP is in late September to early October. During or just before our color season. The air is cool but not cold, we still have some delicious warm days (in the sun, maybe not in the shade), the crowds are gone, lodging is cheaper, and the skies are the bluest they'll ever be against the golden tones of our trees in autumn.
Peak color season in the UP is the last week in September and the first two weeks in October. My favorite color tour centers around Munising and Marquette. The views around there are spectacular. If you want to go farther north, you can't beat my birthplace, the Keweenaw Peninsula, for color. The drive to Copper Harbor will make you want to cry!
In the northern lower, the color tour along Little Traverse Bay from Petoskey to Harbor Springs to the Tunnel of Trees and Cross Village, then north along the shore to the bridge is gorgeous!
Huge congrats Ramona. Hope to join you in the 1000 club in a few months. You probably have answered this many times before but what is the best writing advice you have ever heard?
Thanks! No worries about hanging in there! I suppose it is all about perspective. I feel ahead of schedule subscriber-wise & positive feedback, so everything is positive.
Thank you! If there's a secret I haven't found it, but I have a faint idea, based on when my numbers built most quickly:
It has to do with my participation on Notes, believe it or not. (And I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't put two and two together with my numbers.) I love Notes and would be participating, no matter what, but becoming part of the community has definitely added to the number of subscribers. I doubt if it would have happened this quickly if I weren't there joining in and sharing both my own work and the work of others.
There is so much quality writing out there it can be intimidating--maybe even off-putting, considering our quivering egos--but I wouldn't want to miss any of it--and Notes is the perfect platform.
I’ve had a sneaking suspicion this might be the case. I’m still trying to figure out the right “tone” and/or clever comment to add when I restack! I do love how much wonderful writing there is on Substack — and I’m increasingly noticing that some of it is in comments or Notes!
I think the best way to approach Notes is to just be yourself. Don't push it and don't look on it as a competition. It's a wonderful community for writers and you're a writer, so just join in. Say whatever comes to you when you're reading something there, even if it's only a few words. Acknowledge those writers you admire and join in on their successes.
And be sure to push your own stuff.
I mean it. Go ahead. If you're proud of something you've written, share it so the rest of us can read it, too. Isn't that the way you found many of the writers you now admire?
A well-deserved milestone! I'd subscribe again if I could, to help get you over the line, but I know you'll get there "the right way" in no time flat. I love how organically those ~1K folks discovered you and the delightful experience of reading your words.
My question: Related to writing (because I have a few ideas about how you might respond without that guardrail) - what worries you, or challenges you most, at this point in your journey?
One last comment: I'm glad you didn't have to die for this post. 🤣 I'm enjoying reading what others are asking.
On my writing journey--or what's left of it--if you want to know the truth, I worry that I'll never have a book published. It's my own fault that I haven't yet, but before I die I want to hold a book in my hand that has my name on the cover. Then I want to see it on my bookshelf among all of those others that mean so much to me.
Thank you! (But it hasn't happened yet. I'm at 997!! Which may be what's keeping me modest...)
But, my favorite teacher: I answered that in Amanda Hinton's really fun interview a while back, https://theeditingspectrum.substack.com/p/good-writing-can-cause-our-wobbly?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
so I'll just quote myself here:
There were, in fact, two of them [teachers who influenced]. The first would have to be my high school English teacher, Mrs. Kremer. She was young and pretty and quite liberal, now that I think of it. In her class we heard FDR’s speeches and we read Arthur Miller’s The Crucible–ostensibly about the Salem Witch trials, but really a parable about the McCarthy Hearings and the Red Scare–and she made sure we knew that. Mainly, she loved good writing and she shared the things she loved, so I came to love what she loved and my fire was LIT! She read passages from contemporary writing that threatened to make me cry in class. Most English classes in the 1950s centered on the classics—so boring to a teenager. I remember that she was supposed to teach ‘Silas Marner’ and she threw it out for something else–and did it with such flourish: Ha! Gone! You can thank me later! (Oddly enough, I can’t remember the book that took its place.)
My second such teacher was an instructor in Junior College who wore an earring in one ear (long before it was a thing). He was a white man who wore dashikis and orange tennis shoes and was a bit of a buffoon, but he introduced me to Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor and Joseph Conrad and Langston Hughes. We had to write in his class—he didn’t care what, he didn’t grade just as long as we were writing. And if Mrs. Kremer got the ball rolling, this guy (can’t even remember his name) made me a player.
What’s your favorite part about being a Yooper? (I was one once, very briefly, and even though Michigan Tech spit me out, I have fond memories.)
I love the remoteness, the feeling that this is 'somewhere else'. The terrain and the people are unique, as is the language, and when I'm here I'm a part of that. When I go back to the city it feels alien now and I'm always in a hurry to come home.
When I move from here, which will be soon, I'll still be Up North, just below the bridge, but this is where my heart is. Always.
I wanna be the first to congratulate you! And married at eighteen? Isn't that what girls did back then when they got out of high school? (I mean, I wouldn't know because I was born at the tail end of the 50's.) But when we tell people my wife was 22 when we got married, they think it's too young. My mother was 22 when she got married, but that's because my dad insisted they wait until after the war, which made a lot of sense since he was in the Underground. (That's what they called the Resistance.) Enjoy your day!
Thank you, Ben. Yes, getting married at 18 was insane! Best thing I ever did. We had 66 years together and produced three wonderful adults who are all now well past middle age. And I have three delightful grandchildren who seem to think I'm pretty special.
All because I got married at 18.
66! We're looking at 40 coming up next July. Best thing we ever did, as well!
Congratulations! The best is yet to come. ❤️
Congrats on the magic 1,000! Very exciting, and you are deservedly proud. And I do have a question but it's as a book author. I know people read my books. I'm not sure how many. I've had some nice reviews. I have ratings on Amazon, usually 4 and 5 star (Extra question: why do the trolls look at a book with 25 4 and 5 star ratings and leave a ONE star rating and no review? If you hated the book, I'd really like to know why!). I get pretty decent Kindle Unlimited page reads ( I do not have all my books on KU, but rotate them). Huge problem: marketing with limited means. I mean, REALLY limited. Well, I keep telling myself it's fine, I don't write to get rich (or even pay my bills...that ain't happening!) or famous (I do appreciate that my character Augusta McKee seems to have a respectable number of fans). I guess my best bet is bite the bullet and be grateful I sell some books every month botth on line and with the local organizations that carry my books. Mainly I post promotions on my FB pages (personal and professional). Any suggestions as to what else I can do that is free or at least wouldn't take food out of my kitty's mouth?
Thanks, Susan. Well, as you can tell I'm absolutely no expert on marketing, but I think you couldn't go wrong by building your presence here at Substack. We're essentially a writers community and there are many fine fiction folk working together to prop each other up.
@S.E Reid is one of them. She's a huge help and a fine writer, and I know you two would get along!
Let me know if you decide to climb aboard. I'll do everything I can to make it easier for you. ❤️
Thanks, Mona. It seems somehow I already have picked up a few followers on Substack, so I'll give it a try. I'm all for supporting my fellow writers, by the way! We have a nice local group of female authors here in the Poconos that actually have developed a publishing co-op, which I really like.
Do you have any kind of presence here on Substack? If so, I'd like to follow you. And do consider looking around for fiction writers on Notes. They're a great bunch!
It's kind of a writers' desert up here in the boonies and I've never stopped missing my band of merry women writers. It means so much to have buddies like that.
Wahoo Ramona!!!! This is fantastic and wonderful and deserves cake. A thousand subscribers is a massive milestone!
I haven’t been around too long but it seems like your writing keeps getting better and better. It gets deeper and personal and very funny! It is enriching. So I guess one question I have is is there any one thing you would attribute to this shift?
My second and main question is what is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
I do feel my writing is getting better, and I think it's because I have time now. I'm living alone in God's Country, I'm not watching cable news as much, the distractions are far fewer, I'm getting older than old and I'm feeling freer. And I think I have to thank Substack for much of it. Between the newsletter and Notes I have a platform, a comfortable platform, and I'm easing up on any anxiety. That's it, I guess.
As for the bravest thing I've ever done... Hmm. I don't think I've ever been truly brave. I've taken chances, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but I don't see any of it as bravery. Sorry.
Hmm, given that you chose to stay on your island over winter I think you likely choose small acts of courage often. Living with loss requires many acts of courage and, based on your questions above, marching into two different newspaper offices to ask for a job without qualifications demands courage also. Many acts of daily bravery!
Okay, courage maybe. I've had to draw on courage many times in my life, as most of us do. Life throws daggers. We either throw them back or duck.
What a fascinating life you've had! I hope you're writing a memoir. And congratulations on your soon-to-be-achieved 1,000!
LOL. If I wrote a memoir I'd have to make stuff up in order to fill an entire book. I've forgotten more than I remember! These things come to me at odd moments and I have to struggle to remember the details.
It's the most embarrassing ones I remember with exquisite detail. 😏
The embarrassing ones are the best fodder for stories!
I will see your Wa-Hoo and raise you a WOOT-WOOT!
I've got hundreds to go before I reach 1000, so thank you for modeling that this is A BIG DEAL and when I get there I get to celebrate. I'm so happy for you!
Here's a question for you, since you seem to have a history of meeting famous writers... Who's your favorite writer you've ever met? What's that story?
Asha, I don't know you well enough to write this, but that's not enough of a deterrent for me. I had a wonderful and needed giggle over here at reading "I will see your Wa-Hoo..." Maybe the double entendre isn't obvious to others, but I think I've already established that I'm apt to live on the edge of etiquette. I'm raising a glass to you and Mona!
😂😂😂 I hadn’t thought of that but now I can’t stop!
🤣
Oh...that's BAD! But so, so FUNNY! 🤣🤣🤣
I really haven't met that many, but I think Elmore Leonard had to be a favorite. I had a chance to interview him twice, and I'd met him at a few parties--and of course, that introduction (!!), and every time he impressed me with how casual he was about his own fame.
It may be that he worked at that in order to make everyone around him comfortable, but he didn't have to. That was the thing. Everyone wanted to fawn over him and he wasn't having it. He hated that, and he had a way of finessing those people into accepting him as one of their own. He made it fun to relax with him.
Now, if you asked me which writer I HATED from the first moment I saw him, it would have to be Gordon Lish. What a colossal ass. As president of Detroit Women Writers, I had to wine and dine him at a writers conference once, and he pranced around in his damn ascot, pretending to be hurt that we all didn't make a fuss over his woeful tales about persistent psoriasis, and then he made fun of our uncultivated choices of wine and cheese.
Then I ran into him again at Ragdale, where he'd been invited by an apparently clueless board of directors to pull his "Big NYC editor" scam on a bunch of rich wannabee writers who had nothing better to do with their money than to be insulted by the man they thought might make their wildest dreams come true.
But that's a story for another time.
Spill the tea, Mona! I didn’t ask about the one you hated because many writers demur so as not to burn bridges. I love that you don’t give a fig. 😍
Never fear, Asha. It won't be long now! ❤️
Yay, Ramona! Huzzah! 🙌 So, because resilience and the need to be resilient is on my mind, where did you find your resilience as a writer? How did you keep going? Here’s another question: what’s your favorite bird?
Ha! I often wonder myself how I kept going. In those years when I was publishing the most, my life, when I look back on it, was a mess. My mom was dying, my dad was in the early stages of dementia, I had three children and a grandchild at home, and my husband was traveling for his job at least 300 days out of the year.
My writing was my lifesaver, and so were my writer friends. I was deeply involved with Detroit Women Writers, a professional organization started in 1900, when newspaper women in Detroit were denied access to the press club so they decided to form their own. It built over the years and by the time I was accepted almost every known female writer in Michigan belonged--including Judith Guest and Joyce Carol Oates.
It felt big and I needed to produce. And my friends couldn't have been more generous. Even with everything going on at home I took time for myself--and that was new for me. For four years in a row I spent two weeks at Ragdale, an artist colony in Illinois. I was a writer there. Nothing else. And it saved me, too.
Now I'm pretty unencumbered and I want to give back. That's why I'm doing this. I had no idea I would love it so much, but I do.
And my favorite bird is the chickadee. She flits and sings and comes close and it almost feels like we could be friends. She doesn't bother anybody. She's never a danger. She seems...happy.
Ramona, I love hearing about Detroit Women Writers - I want to interview you about that at some point - and i know exactly what you mean about writing being a lifesaver. Life with people is always messy, often chaotic, but it is the thing that feeds my writing, too - do you find that?
And the chickadee! The state bird of Massachusetts- and I always feel such joy when one will alight on my hand to take a sunflower seed.
I'll be happy to tell you all I know about DWW but I'm no longer involved and I'm afraid I haven't kept up since moving to the boonies. Though some of my old friends are still my old friends.
About my messy life feeding my writing--yes, in the sense that I needed something else that felt fulfilling. Not that it was terrible--it wasn't--it was chaotic and exhausting at times, but nothing about it made me want to throw it all away. Not a chance!
Until Ed died, I rarely if ever wrote about my personal life. None of my readers ever knew the names of my husband or parents or children. But my personal life surely had an affect on my more personal writing, even, maybe especially when I went full-force political.
Because I was so entrenched with my family, and because I loved them so, much of my political zeal came from what always felt like an urgent need to protect them. I could then project it to protecting others who needed it, and my liberal roots began to take center stage.
I don't know if I could have devoted that much time to trying to save the world in later years if I hadn't had my own family to remind me of how precious it all was--and how close we were coming to losing it all.
I think every writer is forced to draw on their own lives in order to make sense of why they're writing and why they must keep on doing it. It becomes more than a habit, it becomes a necessity.
Indeed, this all rings so true - and if I did interview you, it would focus on your time involved with the DWW, because I think such women’s organizations, largely unsung, indicate just how important it is to find and build community as writers. I’ll get back to you about all that, but this morning, after a difficult week, I find your responses about resilience quite inspiring 😘
Great! Any time, Martha. I'm sorry you've had a hard week. I hope your weekend proves better.
Yes, I’m back to writing- that lifesaver 😘
Congratulations. I have been hovering around 175 for weeks now but I am thrilled to be so close to 200. 1000 seems Biden years away! 🙄
Congratulations! My burning question is: what kind of ceramics did you study?
Pottery, mainly. I learned to throw on a wheel and I loved it, but I loved the history and the art of ceramics in any form. I fell in love with it so much I thought for a while it might be my calling, but writing seemed to be shouting at me, so...
I have two beautiful pieces by John Glick on my mantel. I met him at his studio in Farmington Hills and was just awestruck by his work. I remember how special those days of throwing pots were to me, but I only have one piece to show for it. I gave all the rest away. Not that they were that good. They weren't. But my relatives seemed to like them. 😉
My art teacher in our town does ceramics. She has done many beautiful and clever works, my favorite being a plate of macarons that looks good enough to eat.
I know! We were picking dates for a trip to Europe without even realizing it was coming up.
Congrats are getting so close to that milestone. Have little doubt you'll reach it within days. I love your perspective on maturity and being free to write whatever and whenever without distractions. Since leaving my college fine art teaching position 9 years ago, I have slowly reached the point of feeling free to create art whenever and however I wish. Writing entered the picture more consistently along the way as well. Being free to experiment with the processes of making art/writing and discover my truer self along the way is beautiful. Thanks for sharing yourself with all of us.
Thanks, Michelle. I love your 'Artist's Journey'. Your artwork is gorgeous!
I think the revelation that it's okay to write freely comes hard for some of us. We're so used to being uptight about our writing, as if every word has to mean something or we just might have to throw it out.
What a drag!
Thank you so much! My writing process is parallel to my mark-making process. Free in the beginning to get it all out in the open, reflection, editing, subtraction, addition, more reflection, etc. The real freedom comes when I send them all out into the universe, so I can start the process again. Agonizing and invigorating at the same time!!
Yes, that's what makes the whole process so addictive! We start out never knowing where it will lead and when we get to that place where it feels right, no matter how long it takes, it's like climbing a mountain to take in the view. The thrill is well worth the challenge.
Congratulations! I am so happy for you, and happy to be learning from you and connecting with a fellow Michigander over the magic of the internet. So what is the best time of the summer to visit the UP? And can we see the Northern Lights in the summer? Because that's my summer 2025 goal 😊
Thanks, Sarah. For summer, I think the best time is later in July. The black fly season is over (most of June) and the rains of August haven't hit yet. My own favorite time to visit the UP is in late September to early October. During or just before our color season. The air is cool but not cold, we still have some delicious warm days (in the sun, maybe not in the shade), the crowds are gone, lodging is cheaper, and the skies are the bluest they'll ever be against the golden tones of our trees in autumn.
If only my kids had fall break the first week of October! It's always the second week.
Peak color season in the UP is the last week in September and the first two weeks in October. My favorite color tour centers around Munising and Marquette. The views around there are spectacular. If you want to go farther north, you can't beat my birthplace, the Keweenaw Peninsula, for color. The drive to Copper Harbor will make you want to cry!
In the northern lower, the color tour along Little Traverse Bay from Petoskey to Harbor Springs to the Tunnel of Trees and Cross Village, then north along the shore to the bridge is gorgeous!
Huge congrats Ramona. Hope to join you in the 1000 club in a few months. You probably have answered this many times before but what is the best writing advice you have ever heard?
Hang in there. You'll get there!
The best writing advice maybe came from me. (Not to brag or anything.) For years, as I was building my tiny career, I had this posted over my desk:
"Chutzpah may get you in the door but skill finds you a seat"
I can't remember now how I came up with it or why, but I think it might have had magical qualities. It saved me many times.
Thanks! No worries about hanging in there! I suppose it is all about perspective. I feel ahead of schedule subscriber-wise & positive feedback, so everything is positive.
That's what we want to hear!
Ramona, huge congrats on the 1k milestone! What’s the secret (or is there a secret?) to getting free subscribers?? Sending a hug.
Thank you! If there's a secret I haven't found it, but I have a faint idea, based on when my numbers built most quickly:
It has to do with my participation on Notes, believe it or not. (And I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't put two and two together with my numbers.) I love Notes and would be participating, no matter what, but becoming part of the community has definitely added to the number of subscribers. I doubt if it would have happened this quickly if I weren't there joining in and sharing both my own work and the work of others.
There is so much quality writing out there it can be intimidating--maybe even off-putting, considering our quivering egos--but I wouldn't want to miss any of it--and Notes is the perfect platform.
I’ve had a sneaking suspicion this might be the case. I’m still trying to figure out the right “tone” and/or clever comment to add when I restack! I do love how much wonderful writing there is on Substack — and I’m increasingly noticing that some of it is in comments or Notes!
I think the best way to approach Notes is to just be yourself. Don't push it and don't look on it as a competition. It's a wonderful community for writers and you're a writer, so just join in. Say whatever comes to you when you're reading something there, even if it's only a few words. Acknowledge those writers you admire and join in on their successes.
And be sure to push your own stuff.
I mean it. Go ahead. If you're proud of something you've written, share it so the rest of us can read it, too. Isn't that the way you found many of the writers you now admire?
A well-deserved milestone! I'd subscribe again if I could, to help get you over the line, but I know you'll get there "the right way" in no time flat. I love how organically those ~1K folks discovered you and the delightful experience of reading your words.
My question: Related to writing (because I have a few ideas about how you might respond without that guardrail) - what worries you, or challenges you most, at this point in your journey?
One last comment: I'm glad you didn't have to die for this post. 🤣 I'm enjoying reading what others are asking.
Oh, me too on that dying part! Whew!
On my writing journey--or what's left of it--if you want to know the truth, I worry that I'll never have a book published. It's my own fault that I haven't yet, but before I die I want to hold a book in my hand that has my name on the cover. Then I want to see it on my bookshelf among all of those others that mean so much to me.
I'll feel as if I'm finally a member of the club.
Well, let us know how we can help encourage you toward that goal!