Melinda's Writing Pages: Pen to Paper

Today I am happy to have you here Lyn.  Thanks so much.  We have alot to cover so let's get started.

I'm a free lance writer, newpaper columnist, and third generation rancher whose business card reads, "purveyor of horse sense, nonsense, and occasional wisdom." I was a closet poet until age 50, when I was widowed, went back to school, began my column, and got invited to perform at the national Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko NV. The next year I helped coordinate a local poetry gathering where I met my current husband and a lady who has been a business partner and soulmate ever since. Deb Carpenter-Nolting and I have recorded two CDs of original poetry and music with an historical emphasis. The Heart's Compass is based on diaries of pioneer women, and Leaders and Legends chronicles the lives of characters like Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, and Clara Brown. We travel for the Nebraska and South Dakota Humanities Councils, presenting these stories, as well as offering programs in schools and writing workshops.

My first poetry book, Downwind From The Smoke, was published in 1994; the second is Ground Tied, which won a Will Rogers Medallion award from the Academy of Western Artists in 2004.

My Sister Mariah is a daybook of short essays relating to lessons gleaned from a lifetime on the land.

I'm currently beginning, Family Matters, mostly memoir, but including stories about people in the community where my grandparents homesteaded and where I have lived all my 70 years, whose lives have shaped me and grounded my values. It may contain both poetry and prose, but who can tell? If I have learned anything at all about writing, it is this: one must let the writing tell you what it wants. And that would be my primary advice for aspiring writers. But what do I know? I am self taught, and self published! Still, I totally believe that after finding one's personal voice, a writer's main responsiblity to him/herself is to hone the craft and be true to that voice. For that reason, I avail myself of all opportunities to learn from other writers, whether local workshops or more formal retreats.

Newer authors whose work I particularly admire are Stanley Gordon West, Kent Meyers, Elizabeth Berg, Barbara Kingslover, and Wallace McRae. But I keep coming back to Robert Frost, Charles Badger Clark, and Ivan Doig, for inspiration, laughter, and healing.

My ideas come from the land, animals, conversations overheard or participated in, a song lyric, a line from something I'm reading; in other words, whatever I take time to pay attention to. Songwriter Andy Wilkinson says if the piece you are writing takes off in a direction you hadn't intended, it simply means you are paying attention. Songwriter Billy Joe Shaver says, "write it so you can pull a string through it," and Wallace McRae says, "write it as short as it will allow itself to be."

Simply put, I have no real advice for writers other than what I steal from my mentors!

As for research, I'm hooked on it! Sometimes I have to force myself to stop and just write, based on what I have gathered. I don't write scholarly pieces, nor many news articles, but for the historical work I gather any material which will give me a sense of the person, and after taking extensive notes, I choose one incident or period in that person's life which seems to show who they really were, and build my poem on that, usually in first person voice.

I queried approximately 60 publishers for My Sister Mariah, and all I got was experience in writing good query letters and a sense of how difficult it is to break into the markets. But it was good experience, and I wouldn't discount any of it. The book is mainly aimed at rural women, and I knew that is a limited market, and that publishers are looking for big sales.

I have worked with a good printer for my self publishing, and the only downside of that is personal expense and having to do your own marketing. And I dislike marketing, so have no advice to offer about that! E publishing may be the wave of the future, but I still like a book I can carry in my hands! Print on demand may be worth investigating, and I will probably look at that in the future.

I have no memory of ever wanting to be anything but a writer and a rancher. My actual experience in both fields has been very different that imagined, but then isn't life always so? I am blessed to have had the best of both worlds. When you love what you do you never really work a day in your life!

Thanks, Melinda, for inviting me along on your journey, it has been a pleasure.

Your welcome Lyn, and thank you for your insight on writing.  Hope to have you back again real soon.  I have a copy of your book "Ground Tied," which I truly enjoyed.

If you are interested in Lyn's books, here is how you can get your hands on them

Book list:

Downwind from the Smoke

Ground Tied

My Sister Mariah

With Deb Carpenter-Nolting

The Heart's Compass book/CD

Leaders and Legends CD

Available by contacting

Lyn Messersmith

4241 269th Trail

Alliance, NE 69301

ezrein@bbcwb.net

Walk in peace and harmony,

Melinda