A B O U T M E
Writing has always been a compulsion for me. As has reading. While my first efforts might have been fiction (as in the story of The Bear) most of the scraps I’ve found have been nonfiction. In an effort to keep me busy, my mother searched for activities. Cheerleading. Competitive roller skating. Rainbow girls and Job’s Daughters. By Junior High, she alighted on public speaking. She convinced the high school Phi Rho Pi teacher/liaison that I should be allowed to compete with the older students.
Then it became reading, writing and speaking. Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Debate, Informative. These were my competitive areas. For awhile, I dabbled in Dramatic Interpretation but really, how far can Joan of Arc take you?
Apparently, not far enough because I left home (Sarasota, Florida) when I was 17 years old, bounced back for a brief period at 18 then didn’t move back until I was 30 years old. I just needed to get warm.
What happened in the intervening years is part of the ongoing, continuing adventure that is my life. Bad decisions make for good stories, I hope.
I A M A W R I T E R
The Bear. The backside of that decades-old note has a phone number and other scratches in my mother’s handwriting. While I was delighted to find it in the detritus of her life, I have no memory of it.
Here’s what I think happened: Me, being me, and Mom, being her, she reached into her purse handing me a pen and a scrap piece of paper. “Write me a story,” she would have said. And, I did. This is the first evidence that I am a writer unless you consider the scribbled-in copy of Three Billy Goat’s Gruff. I found that in Mom’s stuff, too.
Mostly, I’ve been paid to write, in the Army, in my jobs, in the company I’ve owned for 22 years: The Environmental PR Group. That work scratched my itch to write.
But, apparently, not enough, because as I searched through my files getting organized for my next career, writing what I want to about things that matter to me, I found bits and pieces of this and that. Some made it to publication, some did not.
W H A T I W R I T E
B O O K S
Many years ago, I wrote a book: Water Wars: A Story of People, Politics and Power. Presently, I’m working on a 20-years later update for that and making plans to present it as both audiobook and e-book, which I didn’t do 20 years ago. But, that was then, well, now is now. Going forward, I’ll write about the things I’ve always written about but some new, more personal stories, too.
S C I E N C E & N A T U R E
I write about science and nature and water and the policies that affect these things.
T R A V E L
I plan to write about travel. But, in keeping with my theme: Bad Decisions Make Good Stories, I plan to write about everything from running the bulls in Pamplona to falling asleep on a train to Venice, Italy and realizing, just in time, I was about to take my parents into what was then Communist (and closed) Yugoslavia. “Jump, jump, jump,” I shouted to my parents, as I grabbed their backpacks and my own and jumped from a moving train.
M E M O I R
About those bad decisions…about things that happened…about memories real and imagined. I plan to write about filling in the gaps and answering the questions I have about life, my life and my colorful family. I hope that in figuring out my stuff, I can help you figure out yours. We all got stuff.
S T O R I E S
Dr. Suess said it best…Oh the stories you could tell…I plan to tell them. Adventures, misadventures, people I’ve met, things I’ve seen, what I’ve learned.
S O C I A L I S S U E S
My story about seeing a live sex show in Amsterdam began as a travel piece (bad decision) but the more I wrote, the more it became about human trafficking. It’s just one of the social issues I plan to write about.
R A N D S T A N D I N G B L O G
W O R K S H O P S & C O N F E R E N C E S
When I decided to do my own writing, I wanted to understand the difference, the craft, of more literary undertakings. Conferences were a way to jumpstart a new language of writing. And, a way to take time to focus on specific pieces.
2019 Writers in Paradise — Zippty Do Whaaaaa? Ziplining in the Costa Rican Cloud Forest
2018 Sanibel Writers Conference
2018 Other Words Conference — I Went to a Live Sex Show in Amsterdam
2017 Writers in Paradise — Water Wars 20 Years Later
2017 Sanibel Writers Conference
2016 Writers in Paradise — Mama Killed a Cuban
2016 Other Words Conference — After Midnight
P U B L I S H E D W O R K
| TYPE | PUBLICATION | STORY TITLE |
|---|---|---|
| BOOK | Water Wars: A Story of People, Politics and Power | |
| The Florida Survival Handbook | Swmming with the Sharks: Feared, Ooverfished and their habitat threatened, these beauties struggle to sruve with the help of scientists | |
| Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing | Residents Rule: The Fight to Stop Phosphate Strip Mining in Florida | |
| MAGAZINE | ||
| Clubs and Recreation | Making it at McChord | |
| Quality Cities Magazine | Getting Credit, Gaining Cash | |
| Municipal World | Municipal Water Wars: Moving from conflict to collaboration | |
| Sarasota Magazine | Return to the Sea | |
| Florida Magazine | Debbie the Manatee | |
| Florida Magazine | Getting by with a little help from friends: Whale rescue | |
| SRQ Magazine | Getting by with a little help from friends: Dolphin rescue | |
| Outstanding in the field: Mote's Chemical Fate and Effects Program | ||
| The Chase is on: It's Tarpon Time | ||
| The Mote Marine Aquarium | ||
| Let's Talk Turtles | ||
| Misc Movie Reviews | ||
| Vital Speeches of the Day | Science, Nonscience and Nonsense: Communicating with a lay public | |
| JOURNAL | AWWA | Water and Law: Broward Water Partners Collaborate to Conserve |
| AWWA | Public Private Partnerships: Part of the Sustainability Plan | |
| NEWSPAPER | ||
| Leominster Sentinel Enterprise | Jefferson Starship: Looking for the right sound | |
| Sarasota Herald Tribune | On the Death of a Friend | |
| Where's Somolia? Seargent finds out the exciting way | ||
| Leominster Sentinel Enterprise | Deven's Commander Talks About Today's Army | |
| Sarasota Independent | Top Teacher | |
| Tampa Tribune | Book Reviews | |
| Florida Specifier | The Real Cost of Cheap Water | |
| Sarasota Independent | Injustice Abroad | |
| Sarasota Herald Tribune | Deplores City Attitudes | |
| Tacoma News Tribune | Make the Difference | |
| COMMUNITY PAPERS | ||
| Northwest Airlifter | Get Your Thrills Whitewater Rafting | |
| Wet, Wild and Wonderful: The Olympic National Forest | ||
| Northwest Airlifter | Underage Drinking: It's not worth it | |
| Dispatch | Off-post housing—who says there's a problem? | |
| Call her soldier, call her mom | ||
| Ranger Newspaper | Want to be a working wife? Start here. | |
| The Mercury | Emergency: EMT's say it's a way of life | |
| Funding cuts force MWR to find ways to become self-sufficient | ||
| Dispatch | Promiscuity and related problems | |
| Dispatch | Living off-post: Is it a choice? | |
| NEWSLETTER | ||
| National Association of Professional Environmental Communicators | Bridging the Gulf | |
| Mote News |
M Y W R I T I N G A W A R D S
Like I said, I’ve been paid to do a lot, and a lot of different kinds of writing. Below is a list of awards for some of that work including ads, television shows, website, marketing materials, guest columns, promotional tools along with this and that. Awards used to be the currency of success in writing. The new measure: publishing.
| Organization | Award | Winning Submission | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPA WaterSense® | Partner of the Year | Conservation Pays | ||
| Vega | Acrtus | Get a Rebate. Get a Bonus. (promo video) | ||
| W3 Award | Silver | How to Get a Rebate video series | ||
| LACP | How to Get a Rebate video series | |||
| LACP | PRSV | |||
| Davey Award | Get a Rebate. Get a Bonus. (promo video) | |||
| W3 | Silver | Silver Anniversary Website | ||
| Vega Award | Arctus Award | New Water Brew Explainer Video | ||
| W3 | Silver | Silver Anniversary video | ||
| Marcom | Gold | New Water Brew Marketing materials | ||
| Hernes Creative Award | Gold | Pompano Beach: Let Us Hook You Up | ||
| Videographer Award | Distinction | Silver Anniversary video (Half Hour) | ||
| American Pixel Academy | Pixie Award - Gold | Water Partnershipr Conservation: Switcheroo video | ||
| WateReuse Awards | Public Education Program of the Year | Hillsborough County Water Resources - All Things Reclaimed - Program | ||
| Davey Awards | Silver | Hillsborough County Water Resources - All Things Reclaimed - Program | ||
| Davey Awards | Silver | Broward County Public Schools - “Live Green. Learn Green.” Website | ||
| LACP Spotlight Awards | Bronze | Hillsborough County Water Resources - All Things Reclaimed - Website | ||
| MarCom Awards | Platinum | Hillsborough County Water Resources - All Things Reclaimed - Website | ||
| Hermes Awards | Platinum | Broward County Public Schools - “Live Green. Learn Green.” Website | ||
| Hermes Awards | Platinum | Cooper City Utilities - Conservation Plan | ||
| Fexy Awards | Platinum | Broward County Public Schools - “Live Green. Learn Green.” Website | ||
| W3 Awards | Platinum | Broward County Public Schools - “Live Green. Learn Green.” Website | ||
| AVA Awards | Platinum | Hillsborough County “Hillsborough WaterWorks: Today, Tomorrow, Together” Video | ||
| MarCom Awards | Gold | “Water Resources Protection Drill” Writing/Electronic Communication | ||
| MarCom Awards | Platinum Winner | Lithium Springs Website “lithiumsprings.com” | ||
| Hermes Creative Awards | Platinum | Broward County “NatureScape Makeover: Streaming Video” | ||
| IABC | Award of Excellence | Happy Feet Plus—Green Building: Poster Series | ||
| The Communicator | Award of Distinction | Broward County PSA-TV Water Matters | ||
| LACP | Platinum Spotlight Award | Broward Media Kit | ||
| LACP | Platinum PR Award | ThePhosphateRisk.com | ||
| IABC | Bronze Quill Award of Distinction | Broward Water Matters Media Kit | ||
| IABC | Bronze Quill Merit Award | Poseidon Brochure | ||
| Bronze Telly | Water Saved is Water Shared TV Program | |||
| FPRA | Image Award | Water More or Less | ||
| IABC | Golden Image | FPRA: Florida Waters Magazine | ||
| IABC | Golden Palm | Water, More or Less TV Program | ||
| IABC | Craftsman | Ad: Five Ways to Take the Drain off the Bottom Line | ||
| IABC | EXCEL | Tampa Bay Award for CEO Communicators | ||
| IABC | Award/Excellence | Water Saved is Water Shared (PBS program) | ||
| IABC | Silver Quill | The Quick Fix is not the Whole Answer (Editorial) | ||
| National Ass’n Professional Environmental Communicators | Merit Award | America’s Sea. Keep It Shining | ||
| Sarasota Herald Tribune | Golden Gavel | Public Service Communications | ||
| Florida Governor’s Award for Environmental Ed | Finalist | America’s Sea. Keep It Shining. | ||
| Advertising Federation | Gold Addy | National/Regional Campaign: “America’s Sea. Keep It Shining.” | ||
| Advertising Federation | Gold Addy | |||
| Renew America | America’s Sea. Keep It Shining. | |||
| Florida Public Relations Ass’n | Judges Award | Press Release: “Most Band for the Buck” |