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The Rocky Road to Finding Happiness

I wish I had a starting place on when I got interested in writing. I believe my late mother, who passed away in 1998, told me when I was two years old, the car I was riding in was behind a bus. I happened to say “Trailways bus.” That was when my mother discovered my ability to read.

I was following my mother’s reading of picture books when I was three or four. At four years old in 1968, my mother enrolled me in preschool at the Child Development Laboratory School on the campus of Lindenwood College. Actually, the Child Laboratory School was held at the St. Charles Presbyterian Church; which at the time was part of Lindenwood College. They had quite the reading program. I also spent my Kindergarten in this “laboratory” school, where I was reading by myself. My kindergarten teacher kept an index card of all of the books I read throughout the school year. Although they had a reading program, I was one of only a few of my classmates who read by myself on a slightly higher level.

But we were studying phonics in Kindergarten. I will say that definitely helped me. But reading alone and in silence—that was something I did before I even began elementary school.

I don’t consider myself to be any kind of prodigy. I am definitely not one of those. I have never claimed to be anything special. Yet, when I went into the first grade, I was just as common of a child compared to all of the others. But my mother treated me as special and teachers set the bar higher for me between first and third grades. It wasn’t until my 4^th grade teacher understood me and I started to enjoy school.

Many petty elementary school observations, some rather graphic and I don’t want to post any descriptions here, began to take over in my education. It was the 1970s. But there were some things that took place in school that I observed that people today would drop their jaw and say “I don’t believe it would ever happen.” Well, it did. As a result, reading took a back seat. This is about the time when the “whole language” movement started to take place, ultimately quashing any achievements I made in reading. On the other hand, there was so much emphasis made on teachers being in the classroom and supervision at all times that opportunities such as going to the school library were unheard of and pretty much out of the question.

Not only that, but if you have an elementary school principal who had sons who later got expelled for distributing drugs on another school property and you do a terrible job operating your school, it would cost innocent kids their education.

When I entered junior high school in 1976, my 7^th grade English teacher encouraged going to the library. Finally, access to a library was achieved. But by the 8^th grade, emphasis was placed on grammar and also by that time, the introduction of classical literature took place. Why introduce the classics when you can’t even access the library? Who knows? But that was what was going on in 1978. This kind of stuff not only drained the creativity out of you, but teachers in junior high and a good part of high school wanted students to write just like the classic writers, simply because the language “would be preserved.” There was no encouragement for contemporary literature. Going outside the writers of the 19^th Century was unacceptable, let alone discouraged.

Of course, high school offered “contemporary literature.” But this was 1980 and to them, “contemporary” meant the 1920s and 1930s. Probably the public high schools didn’t want any controversy. On the other hand, colleges such as the University of Missouri were giving rather poor examples of what literature should be. The University of Missouri in the 1980s had an academic reputation very similar to that of the movie Animal House.

Talk about being a late bloomer; when I was a senior in high school, I was encouraged by my senior English teacher to get back into writing. After not being able to go beyond Algebra II, I discovered that engineering wasn’t passed down as a genetic trait. My father was an electrical engineer for a defense contractor. So I got back into the ambition I wanted to be back in the 1970s.

I wanted to become a writer.

But I just didn’t want to become any writer. I wanted to become a writer and a journalist. There were lots of great journalists who became great writers. I had that opportunity at Lindenwood College. For four years, I learned about broadcasting, the arts and politics. Broadcasting, mass media (outside books and some magazines) and politics is what I equate to prostitution. But the latter sentence is another article on this web site.

At Lindenwood College, I discovered the lowest floor of the college library, known as Butler Library. That was where the classic fiction was. I know that it was the same stuff they tried to feed us when we were in public school. But public schools didn’t teach about appreciating it or showing what this literature truly meant. I also enjoyed Butler Hall, then home of the English department and the offices of three great English professors, Dr. Howard Barnett, Jean Fields and Jim Feely. Those three set me forward to a writing career.

After college, I went into the work world. But it took me a year after college to get there. But the jobs weren’t writing. I began to do freelance jobs that didn’t pay much (or didn’t pay at all). There are always one or two manuscripts I have somewhere out there that gets worked on or occasionally submitted. But the writing, like life, continues.

Fiction Writing After College

The writing continues. It's a difficult process to write a book, especially when you have spent a decade understanding what literature is and what really goes into a novel, especially one that is for young adults. There are a few who will say "L.J., just write for younger children and make the characters younger." I can do that and I have a story in the works.

It has been sixteen years since I started attending writers conferences and literally learned what goes into children's literature. The book business itself is quite a business. It's more art and creativity minded and the payment is more for pride rather than money. Authors getting pennies for a book in royalties is not a great return. But just seeing the book on the shelf and those who pick it up, read it and find interest in the words is enough compensation from the writers to consider it "mission accomplished."

My first true serious writers conference was in 1992 when I went to Minneapolis for the Society of Children's Book Writers Midwest Conference held at the Radisson Hotel Metrodome on the University of Minnesota campus. I met some really serious writers and editors, such as James Cross Giblin, Sheri Cooper Sinykin, Marion Dane Bauer and many others who were either just starting out in the business or trying to get their manuscripts read. I had attended writing festivals in St. Louis before Minneapolis. But it wasn't as intense as the SCBW Midwest Conference. That was a learning experience all to itself, as well as SCBW itself, which changed its name to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in that same year, becoming the current acronym of SCBWI.

After attending the Midwest Conference, I also attended such smaller state conferences such as the one held in Springfield, Missouri (later moved to St. Charles in 1996). I have also attended conferences in Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana and Michigan. Each one of them was a learning experience. Not only did I meet some successful writers. But each time I saw what they did, it opened my eyes as to what it really takes to become a writer.

I did learn after attending the 1992 SCBWI Missouri Conference in Springfield at Drury College that really a young adult novel "series" was impossible to do and really is not something that anyone would want to buy in the bookstores or even keep in the libraries. I still continued to write on the books and plugged away pitching any of those novels to the editors. I had character problems, according to most of the editors. My characters were two-dimensional. They didn't have a voice.

By the end of the 1990s, I found that I had a bigger problem--this time, detected by one of my critique groups. I had a sequence problem. That made things worse and my novels were worthless and useless. Plus they became more dated because they were set in the 1980s. Even though that was 20 years ago, kids do not read stuff about kids from 20 years ago, according to the editors and publishers. So not only did I have flaws with my characters, I had even fatal flaws with my plots as well.

By the beginning of 2001, it was back to the drawing board--or the computer screen. I did print out some fresh copies of those old manuscripts (thanks to computer conversions) and show them to another one of my critique groups, which gave me some ideas. I even took one novel and had a group of hockey fans read it, since the novel dealt with hockey and I got some ideas on how to salvage those stories.

But those novels had to be taken apart like a classic car or airplane and had to be improved and reassembled. It's taken a while and they are still being worked on. But I have to give credit to my letter writer whose letter I posted on the front page of this web site. She hit the nail right on the head. I must write about what I know. I spent most of my life in my hometown and I know a lot about it. It's time that I concentrate on setting my novels in my own home town, rather than set them in cities which I know nothing about, or have too few information.

Slowly and surely, I will have a book or two written. Good novels take time to write.

How I got interested in history

In 1981, I worked with a longtime friend of my family named Richard Vinson. He was putting together an exhibit of photographs and other memorabilia about a section of St. Charles called Frenchtown, located on the city's north side, along Route 94. What was to be for me as a "cable TV" project, turned into something more than I could imagine. I got to know more about St. Charles and its deep rooted history.

I met some other interesting people who were involved with the local St. Charles County Historical Society and I learned how to research. There were some great volunteers that worked down there. In the summer of 1981, there were two "Frenchtown Revisited" exhibits. The first one was held in an old warehouse which served as a car dealer along North Second Street. The second was held at the old M-K-T depot in St. Charles. Seeing the people look at old St. Charles memorabilia got me interested in local history.

By 1985, I became a member of the St. Charles County Historical Society. I started out researching and typing letters as a volunteer. Later, I continued my research, but for articles to appear in the St. Charles Heritage magazine, published by the St. Charles County Historical Society. My first article published was in January, 1987 and it was about Frenchtown Revisited. I have written and published over 30 articles from 1987 to the present day. One of my most recent articles published in October, 2000 presented a personal history about my grandfather, Louis J. Hachtmeyer, who served as street commissioner for St. Charles from 1936 until 1969.

Richard Vinson died in 1998. His collection is still in tact and is on display in a museum guided by many prominent St. Charles residents interested in Frenchtown.

I continue to receive letters and have personal chats with local St. Charles County residents about history. They have appreciated my articles. I was pleased to have an article written about me in the St. Charles County Post (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). It appeared on January 31, 2000. It's an easy issue to remember. It's the same issue where the Rams won the Super Bowl.

Hopefully, sometime, that article can be transcripted here on this web site.

Writing for Children

I have been attempting children's fiction (primarily for young adults/teenagers) for 25 years. I have completed drafts of manuscripts, originally intending to have a 10-15 book series of novels, based on the local setting of Missouri and Illinois. The only problem was that it wasn't working at all and my main characters were so two-dimensional that it wasn't really working out. Plus, my "colleagues" in the children's writing field absolutely hated my characters and my storylines. So in 1993, I shelved them.

Four out of the initial ten novels were completely drafted out. I tried working something out with trying to make individual novels out of them and that didn't work. Editors said my characters "didn't tell them anything." So they stayed on the shelf.

I later attempted to do non-fiction for children's magazines, since I hold a journalism degree, and I finally got some bites. One of the stories that got me into children's writing as a professional was an article about police horses and how they are making a comeback in many cities, including St. Charles. Fortunately, I had photography experience and I was able to take pictures. The article and pictures appeared in YOUNG EQUESTRIAN magazine during the late 1990s. Now I have a writing credit for writing for children.

So now, I'm still working on the novels and hopefully I can have at least one of them completed and ready to market by the end of the year.

Radio Canada International Mailbag Show

When we had the site up for a while and when I was trying to get some interest after revising the web site the last time, plus, I had to give changes of addresses for when I moved to a new address, I happened to appear on the Maple Leaf Mailbag Show on the weekend of September 12, 2004. It was a worldwide radio show broadcast on shortwave on Radio Canada International (the international service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It is found at http://www.rcinet.ca/ We were talking about the tailgate parties that took place here in the USA (especially when they found the pictures about my trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin). Tailgating continues to be popular in the U.S. The whole thing got started 61 years ago in Canada by a bunch of football fans from Calgary who brought their chuckwagons and started holding their "picnic" in front of Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The show also included a talk about my running and my membership in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I thought it was a real treat.

I have been on CBC Radio three times in three decades. I have been on the Arthur Black show called Basic Black in August, 1985. I was on CBC Radio's Atlantic service in 1995 on an episode of Morningside and the Radio Canada International Show that I just mentioned.

Advice from Peggy Lynch, a Writer-Friend in Chicago

In 2000, I received some very valuable advice from a friend of mine when it comes to my writing. I want to share some of what she wrote to me:

"Honestly, L.J., I suppose the grass muse be greener...because I can't figure out why else you want to write about places like Evanston and Chocago. I can tell you know that Katy Trail like the back of your hand, and the rest of St. Charles. You make it all sound fascinating...and the characters too...like the historian friend who recently passed away. Sounds like a part for Burgess Merideth in the movie version...As your friend I have to tell you that if you only write factual stuff about those places and things (not to mention the Lewis and Clark meeting spot), you're not seeing the forest for the trees.

"I think the reason people tell you that you aren't telling them anything is because you may have been pulling your plots and characters and even places strictly from your imagination or distant observation as a passer by...instead of mixing that terrific imagination with your own reality...where you can describe people and places and things so I can really see them...I can smell those burgers!!!...

"And the research you do! This is certainly food for fiction, as is the history and politics...and the tail gate parties and burgers to Lewis and Clark (imagine to Biking and running). If you don't want to use the town of St. Charles...rename it Launerville or something...but use it.

"I promise, if you do, it won't end up on your shelf."