An Unexpected Road to Publishing
I never expected to become a writer. My high school English classes never required essay or fiction writing. I almost flunked freshman composition at Douglass College. After graduate school (Rutgers), however, I found myself editing manuscripts for the scholarly journal, Simulation and Games, as part of the Academic Games Project at Johns Hopkins University. I also became a free lance copy editor for sociology books on the side.
My first publications were textbooks, scholarly books, and academic journal essays. Early in my career I was interested in women's rights. During graduate school, the major sociology journal included in its advertisements 'Men only,' which meant I was paying for a publication that discriminated against my job opportunities. When I complained to the journal editors, they argued that employers could set any requirements they desired. Fortunately, the state where I was studying, Wisconsin, had anti-discrimination laws prior to Federal Civil Rights. I threatened to have the journal prevented from being mailed to Wisconsin, and without any public announcements, nor private notice to me, that phrase and one saying "under 35 only" disappeared from position notices.
Upon moving to Sonoma County, California, I discovered Jack London, whom I had never read. His life and that of those in his circle seemed a perfect prism approaching major cultural and political themes of the Progressive Era. This led to my shift into trade biographies. My intention was to research books in a scholarly manner, while writing them in a style that would inform the lay reader. I have always believed academics have a responsibility to share their knowledge in terms the larger public can understand, whether through public speaking or writing. My editor at St. Martin Press encouraged me to write further in this vein, and suggested what led to my diving into the archives of major elite families. My aim was to increase readers' understanding of women in society, the way privileged women may be silenced, and even break barriers to make their own significant contributions.
In retirement my writing is more in the direction of songwriting or creating materials for various volunteer groups. Lately I have been working on my own ancestry, for a book with the working title Gypsy and the Radio Man: A Cultural Family History. I explore family culture back to my Bohemian and Hungarian roots, in Cleveland and South Jersey, through to my parents' deaths. My original agent was Elizabeth Knappman of New England Publishing Associates. With her retirement, Roger S. Williams runs the agency.
My first publications were textbooks, scholarly books, and academic journal essays. Early in my career I was interested in women's rights. During graduate school, the major sociology journal included in its advertisements 'Men only,' which meant I was paying for a publication that discriminated against my job opportunities. When I complained to the journal editors, they argued that employers could set any requirements they desired. Fortunately, the state where I was studying, Wisconsin, had anti-discrimination laws prior to Federal Civil Rights. I threatened to have the journal prevented from being mailed to Wisconsin, and without any public announcements, nor private notice to me, that phrase and one saying "under 35 only" disappeared from position notices.
Upon moving to Sonoma County, California, I discovered Jack London, whom I had never read. His life and that of those in his circle seemed a perfect prism approaching major cultural and political themes of the Progressive Era. This led to my shift into trade biographies. My intention was to research books in a scholarly manner, while writing them in a style that would inform the lay reader. I have always believed academics have a responsibility to share their knowledge in terms the larger public can understand, whether through public speaking or writing. My editor at St. Martin Press encouraged me to write further in this vein, and suggested what led to my diving into the archives of major elite families. My aim was to increase readers' understanding of women in society, the way privileged women may be silenced, and even break barriers to make their own significant contributions.
In retirement my writing is more in the direction of songwriting or creating materials for various volunteer groups. Lately I have been working on my own ancestry, for a book with the working title Gypsy and the Radio Man: A Cultural Family History. I explore family culture back to my Bohemian and Hungarian roots, in Cleveland and South Jersey, through to my parents' deaths. My original agent was Elizabeth Knappman of New England Publishing Associates. With her retirement, Roger S. Williams runs the agency.