I remember the day I decided to become an author. I was in the sixth grade and several classmates and I were gathered around a bulletin board viewing bird reports. Our teacher Mrs. Sager had placed several especially well written ones on display and mine was one of them.
What happened next demonstrates the power each of us has with our words. One of my classmates, I don’t even remember which one of my female classmates it was but she said, “Mike you are a really good writer.”
What power that simple complement made in my life! That happened over sixty years ago and I can still hear those words being spoken like it was yesterday.
So began my journey as a writer.
It didn’t start immediately as I had to finish high school. Then there was that five year stint in college and then the beginning of a teaching career.
Then marriage added more responsibilities to life especially when the three children began to arrive.
In spite of life’s interruptions the dream to become a writer lived on.
I was finally inspired to begin my writing career when my teaching position was cut to part time and I was faced with the possibility of being forced to change jobs.
June, July and August suddenly would be no more! I realized that they would have been the perfect time to initiate a writing career. I had been teaching thirteen years at that point and had squandered thirteen summers that could have been creative writing opportunities.
But I was given a second chance when it was discovered that seventeen miles down the road Herman High School was in need of a biology teacher. So the next school year I remained a full time teacher as I taught half days in Wheaton and half days in Herman.
Let the writing career begin! 🙂
Beginning a writing career is not an easy task. What does one write about and how does one find a platform to share your written word with the readers?
My original dream was to write a nature column called Through Nature’s Window. My plan was to have it syndicated in newspapers or magazines throughout the U. S. . Eventually I would be able to retire from the classroom and write fulltime from a little log cabin in the woods. 🙂
Of course a very fine house would be located on the edge of that woods which would contain all the necessities and more for myself and my family. 🙂
Dream on!
Beginning a writing career was a real struggle I soon discovered. The editors of my hometown paper, The Northern Star, were very supportive and helpful as I discussed my writing dreams with them. In fact they allowed me to write my first Through Nature’s Window column in their paper.
The column continued briefly in a farm newspaper, The Sodbuster, but ceased to exist when the editor said my column didn’t fit with the paper’s theme. The editor failed to explain to me what the newspaper’s theme was however. 🙁
It was an exciting time for me however chasing that writing dream. Every May as the end of the school year approached I began planning my three months of writing projects.
The summer breaks came and the summer breaks went. And along with the summer breaks the rejection slips from various magazines and publishing houses arrived in my mailbox.
Then the summer of l984 rolled around and I was sure I had the perfect idea to catch an editor’s eye when I wrote an adventure titled “Nature’s Nightlight”. The story featured our three children who planned to sleep over night in the backyard tent.
Little Bonnie, our youngest, became upset and started to cry. The children feared their hopes of spending the night in the tent would be dashed until Steve saved the day(night). He disappeared into the dark night with a glass jar and returned with the jar containing fireflies flitting back and forth.
I ended the story with a page that contained drawings of two fireflies that children could color as well as information about the lives of the firefly.
Excitedly I sent the manuscript to magazines like Jack and Jill, Ranger Rick and Boys Life confident that I had finally produced a publishable masterpiece.
However to my utter dismay the rejection slips from all the magazines arrived back in my mailbox. 🙁
Then like that old saying “it’s darkest before dawn” proved to be true when I went to the mailbox and was puzzled when I discovered a large manila folder that resembled my own rejected manuscripts but the handwriting addressing the envelope was not mine.
Opening the envelope and dumping out its contents I discovered a magazine titled “Minnesota Out Of Doors” as well as a cover letter that was from the magazine’s editor, Mr. Don Dinndorf. In his letter he offered me $50 per month to write nature stories with an accompanying activity page similar to Nature’s Nightlight.
I finally had a platform for my nature columns!
For six years I filled my three months in the summer creating adventures that taught young readers about the many creatures that existed in our environment. But it gets even better. After two years of writing I realized I had the makings of a children’s book that included twenty-four stories and activity pages.
I had a visit with the editor of our local paper The Wheaton Gazette and he agreed to print the nature stories. Eventually six years of writing resulted in a three set volume titled “Children In The Outdoors”.
That eventually led to traveling the four state area, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa where I presented workshops to elementary teachers. I presented ideas on how the stories could be used to get children involved in learning in the outdoors.
Last week I received a package from the Ukraine. Upon opening it I discovered twenty children’s books. Ten of them were written in Ukrainian and ten of them were written in Russian.
If I were able to read Ukrainian or Russian I would have seen the author’s name on the front cover was none other then Michael J. Larson!
How did I get from “Children In The Outdoors” to writing children’s books in the Ukraine? Those footsteps will be shared in my next blog.
When Mrs. Sager’s writing assignment in the sixth grade awakened my desire to become a writer I had no idea where those footsteps would lead.
Until next time.
