I am a memoirist, short story author, novelist, journalist, and retired professional flutist fortunate to have combined my love of writing and flute playing my entire career spanning over four decades.
I lied my way into my first writing job. I had just graduated with a masters degree in flute performance in 1981 from Illinois State University, and was subsequently serving deep-dish pizza at Gulliver’s Pizzeria on Chicago’s north side. Flat broke, and looking for additional income, as orchestra auditions were far and few between, I answered an unusual classified. “Wanted: keyboard editor.” I didn’t play piano well, but I figured, what the heck?
Turns out the job was with an educational music magazine. During the interview the publisher asked, “If I sat you down at the piano right now, what would you play for me.” I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Absolutely nothing.” He paused a long moment. I expected him to yell at me for wasting his time. Instead, he shuffled through some papers, slid something across his desk, and leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “What do you think of that?” he asked.
I held a one-color (blue ink) 8-page newsletter called Flute Talk. I told him what I thought. Five years later, I had turned it into a 48-page, 4-color magazine with triple the ad space. I also got to be editor of Flute Explorer magazine, and associate editor of The Instrumentalist magazine.
Things went south, though, when I clashed with the publisher as I had an awful temper. I left to become Director of Publications for the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors. That’s a mouthful, but they were a fun bunch of guys. There I learned how to break down a fire extinguisher and got to hang out with trainees at the Fire Academy in Chicago.
I quit when I got pregnant, but after two kids and staying home alone several years I was going a bit stir crazy. Based on an idea I had, a business woman friend encouraged me to found a classy publication on corporate sponsorship of the arts called The Muse: Sponsorship Review, which I produced in my basement, a fact I hid well. I’ll never forget the day my two kids, ages four and six, ran down the basement stairs shrieking while I calmly interviewed Jane Alexander, Chair of the National Endowment of the Arts at the time. My subscribers included the Smithsonian Institute, The Guggenheim Museum, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Atlanta Zoo, dozens of other illustrious organizations. I definitely felt like an imposter, flying by the seat of my sweatpants and amazed to pull it off for three years with no one the wiser.
I taught private flute lessons in the afternoons and evenings.
Currently, I’m a writer and producer of two nationally syndicated radio programs: Radio Health Journal and Viewpoints, heard on 1,300+ commercial radio stations across the U.S.
I’ve also written two memoirs: Healing Motherhood Rage, which may never see the light of day, and A Minor, Unaccompanied, which won the 2022 Memoir Magazine Prize for Books coming-of-age category under the title Nasty Girl. It’s about a young teen abandoned by her parents who survives in an adult world that offers no protection, and who finds the courage to persevere and thrive.
I have two adult children, a son, and a daughter, and have been married to the same man since 1987. Not all those years were happy, but I am grateful they are now.