About Me
Marg
Thanks for stopping by my blog on writing. I’m sure you’ll find some tips here that might be useful for you.
My love affair with writing started when I was just a child. I loved to write and English was my favorite subject in school. When I was in the fourth grade, I noticed some cheesy poems in our yearbook about the older kids in our school and who was dating who. Using these poems as an example, I created my own poem about the kids in my class. Of course I never showed it to anyone! Somewhere in an old trunk I think I still have that very first piece of poetry I wrote!
My actual writing career started when I was in my early 20s. We lived in a mid-sized city and I got a gig writing two weekly columns for our daily newspaper. One column was on cooking and recipes and the other was a neighborhood news column. Both of those are pretty self-explanitory, I think. Then I got the opportunity to write several feature articles for the paper as well. I’d probably still be writing those columns but after I had been with the paper for a few years, we moved out west so I had to give them up.
Once we landed here in Edson, where I now live, I soon started to write a food column for our weekly newspaper here. This was a very part-time venture as I also had a full-time job. I loved the writing, however, and continued to do the column for quite a number of years.
I had always wanted to write a cookbook but never was brave enough to do so. In 1991 I was laid off from my full-time job and by then our kids were almost grown. I decided that this was the time to take on that challenge. For several years I had known about a company that printed cookbooks and I approached them about doing a book. Long story short, they were more than happy to work with me. Thus, in 1992 my first cookbook, “Traditions of Home Cookies and Muffins” was published. Within a year it sold over 10,000 copies and went into a second printing and became a best-selling book. My second book was a little book of wit and wisdom but my real love was the cookbooks. My second cookbook, which came out in 1994, also became a best-seller. It was called “Traditions of Home Casseroles, Soups and More”.
During that time I ended up teaching several writing courses at a local college. These were well attended and were a great success. My students gave me glowing feedback on the courses and I loved teaching them. At that time I also wrote another book, “A Bed and Breakfast Guide for Alberta”. That book sold well too and we would have updated it and republished it again. However, just at that time bed and breakfast establishments were starting to go onto the Intenet and updating and republishing the book would have been a challenge as there was now this new venue for the industry. Consequently that book only went into one printing.
Around this same time I developed an illness that required my attention and I had to give up teaching for a time. I also chose not to continue publishing the cookbooks as I was unsure of my health issues and didn’t want to be responsible for a large volume of books and not be able to promote them effectively. For some time I ‘retired’ from the writing world to tend to my health.
Several years later I wrote my third cookbook, “Here’s the Beef”. It was a totally different type of cookbook from my first two and required a different approach. I worked with it and it sold quite well, although because of my limited ability to travel as much as I had in the past it needed more attention than I could give it. While it did sell well, I wasn’t able to provide it with the care and attention needed to create another best-seller.
Last year I complied a book of Christmas quotes and had it published on Createspace.com It is a great little gift book and I will be promoting it throughout the Christmas season this year. I will be talking a lot about Createspace here on this blog as it is a fabulous way to publish a book at no cost to you.
On a personal note, I’ve been married to Fred for almost 43 years now and we have three grown children. Our eldest, Winston, is married to Donna and they are a great couple. They live in Edmonton. Our middle child, Stacy, is married to Leo and they live here in Edson. Stacy and I are good buddies. Our youngest, Charlotte, lives in Edmonton (about 2 hours away) and has a long-time boyfriend. She has one daughter, Katie, who is now a teenager. She’s the love of our lives and we get along great. Being a grandma is the BEST!
I love to read, write, cook, camp, travel, learn, and generally enjoy life. I like to be optimistic and upbeat and I generally love people.
I’ve included a photo of the covers of my very first book below so you can get a feel for what I’ve done.
Traditions of Home Cookies and Muffins
I hope to provide you with lots of information on writing and publishing books here and hope you come back often.
Marg