There is a story behind this blog. An uncle had encouraged me to take my writing to the next level and "pitch" my work. After thinking through this a bit (both on how to accomplish this and why I would want to), I began the following letter to potential publishing suitors. If you envision me writing this with a glass of wine in hand on a Friday night flight to Denver, you have it nailed. I wrote the intro in fun and then let the Word file sit on my computer for months. But as I was continually asked why I write and why I have a blog (doesn't every accountant write stories on a blog??), I decided to pull up my draft and finish it. So here it is...
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To Whom It May Concern:
I have been encouraged to take my writing to the next level and to seek a broader audience. Although this sounds interesting, I really have no idea how to pitch my writing. This is not a skill that I have ever needed nor refined. The reality is that for all practical purposes, I am simply just an accountant and a mom. Don’t get me wrong; I can write one wicked e-mail on demand as it relates to my work. But I really have no clue on what a publisher needs to know about me in order to assess my qualifications as a professional writer. In all honesty the best work reference that I have to offer is my mom, Mary Wagner (contact info available upon request). Mom has coined me the master storyteller (got to love a mom for the ultimate confidence boost) and it was my mom who encouraged me to write my stories, which ultimately resulted in my blog. As far as writing style, I would personally describe my style as a storyteller and memory collector with the spin of a columnist.
The bottom line is that I have a passion for writing. I always have. I was the little girl who read all the time and wrote stories in my free time. I had been offered a college scholarship to go to an art school, but my dad convinced me to go for the safe (and salaried) accounting route. And I can honestly tell you that have no regrets in my career choice. Of note is my accomplishment of being a published author. As a college freshman, my "Composition and Critical Thinking" professor submitted one of my class essays to our college textbook publisher. It was then chosen to be published as a sample essay in their future textbooks. But I must admit that I really haven’t done much writing the last 20+ post-college years other than work memos, journaling my daily family life, and writing to clear my thoughts at times. This all changed over a year ago when I began my blog. Through our new world of blogging and instant relaying of the written word via the Internet, smart phones, I-Pads, etc…, a writing platform has emerged that is nothing short of intoxicating to me.
What I can tell you is that I love to write because I get no greater satisfaction than someone feeling the inflection of my emotion in my stories and relating to my feelings within their own lives. It’s when the reader somehow, someway feels real individual emotions in themselves that I am inspired to keep writing. I am a firm believer that simply being human and expressing our unique life stories is a WAY better read than the repetitive junk splashed in the tabloid outlets. All of our ordinary lives collectively matter and are of true importance; not the cast of characters played out in our Yahoo news feeds.
So now that you have my one work reference (my mom), my writing history, and my portfolio of stories (all on my blog site: sandyalane.blogspot.com); I believe the next part is where I tell you why I am interested in taking my writing to the next level and why I should be up for consideration for future publishing. Since I am a self-described storyteller, I will use a story that best articulates what fills my heart and drives me to express myself through writing.
This particular story begins over twenty years ago when I lost a close friend who died tragically at a young age. At the time of his death, I was overcome with emotion and very much wanted to do something for his grieving family. I wanted them to know that they had an awesome son who had a huge impact on many lives, including mine. As I have always best expressed myself in the written word, I wanted to write them a letter. Those who were born innately to write can understand this feeling. When spoken words make no sense, thoughts are spinning, and emotions high; writing somehow releases all of these emotions and miraculously brings order back to the world again. But twenty years ago, this would have meant a long hand written or typed letter to be mailed through the US Postal system. I thought about it a great deal and rehashed many stories in my mind deemed worthy to share with his family, but never executed on the letter. A written letter just never felt right and thus never happened.
Fast forward to 2010 and I am introduced to blogging by a young cousin during a casual conversation at a family wedding. I enjoyed reading her blog and inquired about the blog site set-up complexity. She assured me that even a forty-three year old woman would be a few computer key strokes away from accomplishing this feat. So I started my blog with a few meager postings (a bit of testing the water). Then after running across a picture of my deceased friend, B.L., memories of my desire to write about him from years past filled my heart. So in the middle of an afternoon on a weekday last March, I randomly started writing this long overdue letter; a collection of memories. And I felt an incredible sense of relief and emotion as I finished this blog story and I pushed the button to “post”. The letter that sat in the back of my mind for twenty years had finally been delivered.
The result of my blog post on B.L. was a flood of e-mails, messages, and heartfelt sharing of this lost friend. I received the most touching e-mails from his parents, siblings, friends, nieces and nephews (some of which had really never known him). Somehow my story inflected the emotion I was feeling and portrayed what was in my heart on the spirit of this great human life. This was the start of what motivated me to keep writing and the beginning of my journey of sharing stories and experiences. The responses I would get from the reader were a sense of connection. Last week I received the following response to my B.L. blog, "I am a high school friend of BLs and truly loved him. I miss him all of the time. I carry a letter in my wallet that he wrote to me when we were both in college. I found this blog by accident and it made my day. Thank you and God bless you!” Reading this posting made my day and got me back on the computer writing again.
So what motivates me to write is very simple. I get no greater writer's “high” than in knowing someone read what I wrote and felt a real and genuine connection through my story to their own life. Having my stories somehow trigger a memory or create an emotion that feels real and meaningful to others is what keeps me writing.
One might ask, what I am looking to accomplish by taking my blog to the next level? I am not looking for a job change. I have a great day job that I enjoy very much. And I have also been blessed with an incredible circle of family and friends that bring much happiness to my daily life. So I am not looking for a new job or to fill a void in my life. I simply want to share with those who can relate my stories to their own life journey. That's it.
Now you should have everything...my resume, references, portfolio, writing history, and letter of interest. Please let me know if you have any questions. And also feel free to be my FaceBook friend or a Follower to my blog. I am a firm believer that one can ever have too many friends :)
Warmest Regards,
Sandy Lane
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| Grant snapped this pix of me doing my writing thing :) |
