Hi. I’d like to tell you that I’m a reasonably physically fit fifty-year old, independent woman with a meaningful mission to fulfil. But I must say, despite that’s how I feel, I’m a sporadically semi-physically fit, seventy-two-year-old, independent woman with much of her life’s dreams yet to fulfill. I’ve been part of the “old” category of humanity long enough to be getting the hang of it, but not so long that I’m physically falling apart in a big way. I still hope to travel the parts of the world that I haven’t yet. And I hope to write about it, sharing what I learn with others. I want to include many tidbits of stories and things I’ve learned in my everyday journey of being a daughter, sister, wife, mother, accounting instructor, friend, neighbor, family-band performer and promoter, freelance/contract writer, wife, gardener, food-preserver, mid-life university student, grandmother, foster-parent, crisis counselor, immigrant, Case Manager, wife, baggage-service agent, Recreational Program Manager, wife, self-published author, great-grandmother, and more. To clarity, I will quote the embarrassing numbers: 1) I was married and divorced four times, my choice, and 2) I deliberately chose to give birth to thirteen children with my first two husbands. The latter embarrassment is only because of who I chose to have my children with, and because most people automatically assume I’m insane—even some of my offspring. Well, with them it wasn’t so automatic. But that’s enough embarrassment for now. The rest will come out in the form of other random tidbits. Stay tuned! (I also have fifty grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren—zero embarrassment!)
I’ve been told I need to disclose some of my achievements and successes here. Okay. But I will filter that list down to just the things that are related to writing, including personal development, educational, entrepreneurial, and employment based. Chronological order makes sense to me here.
- At the age of ten, using my mother’s secretarial lessons, I taught myself how to type on a manual typewriter—before Junior High I was doing 60wpm—a very useful skill for a future author.
- In 1978 I figured out what parenting habits I need to change in order to eliminate the tantrums my fifth successive child was throwing. Then I adapted the changes to successfully prevent tantrums in my last eight children. Immediately, I knew I had a book to write, because no one else had published my discovery. I’d been looking. But before writing this book, I wanted a university degree so I would be more articulate and more credible. It took fourteen years to get started full-time on a degree, which never could have happened with my first husband.
- I read a how-to book, then developed my own program and taught my own kids (from my 5th to my 12th) how to read phonetically at the age of four. I wrote about it and submitted it to Reader’s Digest, and they published it. I loaned out my only copy of this program, and it never came back, but I may take the time to replicate it and share it on this website.
- My first husband decreed that our family (with nine children) was going to form a Country music band, and he dictated that I would sing backup—though I had no training, talent, or inclination. I did it, but embarrassingly. I told family-based jokes quite well, though. During our third year, I single-handedly organized a massive, multi-activity three-day country Jamboree for the High Level area in northern Alberta. Our fourth year with the band was fully booked, spring to fall. I was the marketer in the band, learning as I went. I figured out early on that newspapers preferred me to just hand them a fully-written story about our band, and they would print it word-for-word. At some point, I may choose to post more information on this website about our Country Clan adventure.
- In 1986, after my first divorce, I was able to take an adult-education course in non-fiction writing at our college. I floated the Tantrum book idea in that class, with good feedback.
- In the summer of 1987, I was hired by a local print shop to get a magazine about entrepreneurs up and running. I interviewed entrepreneurs and wrote articles about them. The print shop didn’t have an accounting system, so I set one up for them, got them up to date, and after a few months I showed them that they couldn’t afford to start up a magazine. So, I worked my way out of that job.
- After my eleventh child was born, I started with two courses at a time on a Psychology degree. I started full-time after my thirteenth baby. I then registered in a Counseling Women Certificate Program for which I had to travel half a province away one weekend a month for more than a year. After that Program, I re-registered at my distance-only university in a double major, Psychology and Women’s Studies, a four-year program. It was a highly respected university, with more course work than on-campus schools required, but it was my only option, as I was still parenting 16/7 at the time. The degree took me fifteen years to complete. But I finally got it done, with Honors. When I would sometimes tell people my purpose with university was to prep for a career in writing, they would ask, “Why aren’t you studying English?” I would say, “Because I want to learn about the things I want to write about—I believe I can learn the mechanics of writing along the way.” I wrote many papers for my university courses, and I’m sure that I will share some of them on this website.
- In the mid-90s, I thought maybe I could write a newspaper humor column and so I tried writing some parenting-related column samples. I never found time to even try to market them. I still have them to share on this website.
- At the age of 14, I moved with my family and started writing letters to the friends I left behind. I noticed, even then, that I put effort into trying to write interesting and engaging material. I wrote hundreds of letters in my life, keeping copies of many. In the mid-90s, I was writing regular letters to two of my children who were on missions, and I made efforts to add humor if I could think of any. A local friend was publishing a tiny “magazine” at the time, and she included some of my more humorous tidbits.
- In the early 2000s I did some contract writing, typically web content for small business owners, such as a large jewelry store in Park City, an accent-reduction book author, and a personal life story for a Vietnamese refugee. After not getting paid one time, I stopped soliciting that kind of work.
- In 2010, I finished writing my first book, MegaMom’s Wisdom for Tantrums: The Tantrum Book to End All Tantrums. This is the book I would have wished I could have read when I first started parenting. My fourth husband (2009 edition) helped me with the formatting and technical hurdles, and we got the book self-published that year. The third edition will be titled Great-Grandma’s Insight for Tantrums.
- For several months, maybe in 2011, I did a bunch of contract SEO writing.
- In 2013 we put out a second edition and printing of the Tantrum book.
- After moving to Pennsylvania, I did some remote work, editing course content for an online school, and editing content for a Medical Residency Placement business.
- About five years ago I interviewed many family members and wrote a book responding to some serious family drama that had occurred in 2010.
- I’m tickled with my initial progress on writing a humor-infused biography about Wayne’s musical path in his life. His long-term musical goal is to compose music for films. My goal is to finish the biography and market it.
- Wayne and I are also embarking on this exciting collaboration with travel videos on his end and travel blogging on mine—which is my primary purpose for starting this website.