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When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. My friend Janet and I wrote stories in third grade that our teacher oohed and aahed over, making us feel talented. She called us the "Gold Dust Twins," because of the way our hair glinted golden in the sun. I loved Mrs. Sibley, and I loved to read, so it seemed natural that I'd someday write stories--or books. Life has a habit of getting in the way of our plans, though. Instead of becoming a writer, I became a scientist like my Dad. While he was a chemist, I was a medical technologist (which includes a lot of chemistry). It was more than twenty years later, after my "dream job" in research ended because of a department closure when I picked up my writing dream again. I wrote two-and-a-half (very bad) novels and some pretty good personal essays. I realized I was a better nonfiction writer than the fiction writer I'd always thought I could be. However, it was clear after a few years of making a few hundred dollars a year that I'd never make a living at writing. I turned to teaching instead. It might seem an odd connection, but I think the reason I wanted to write was because I wanted to share information. So now I'm about finished with a memoir, Mother of My Invention, which somehow completes the puzzle I've always tried to solve about how my mother's identity and mine intersect. and I realize it's the book I've always wanted to write--all my novel drafts flirted with the same story line. As a shy introvert, I haven't always felt I had a voice, and this book gives me one. I hope I have more personal essays in me, but at the least, I will have shared what I didn't feel I could earlier in my life. There's something about writing that helps in understanding what life is about, and I hope others might recognize truths there as well. The books I've enjoyed most are the ones that teach me about the world, about myself, and that I'm not alone. --Janice
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January 2022
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