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Feature

Older , Wiser and...Goin' For It

Senior Authors & Publishers Put Wisdom and Experience to Work

by Jim Barnes

When she tested her writing on two different focus groups of friends, she received much encouragement and advice, such as employing the skills of an experienced editor. When she contacted a local college English professor for editing assistance, the reply was a firm "No, I'm too busy -- but I'll take a quick look." After reading a few pages, the teacher changed her mind and offered to help.

During her research into the publishing process, Lois had learned that having a book done by a royalty house could take two or three years. Under the circumstances, she wasn't sure if she had that much time... Luckily, she had also just read an article by book marketing guru John Kremer on the viability of self-publishing and marketing to a niche audience-so she went for it.

Compared to the challenges she'd already faced, writing and publishing her first book didn't seem all that daunting.

Soon after Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness was published, Lois, a 63 year old grandmother and fulltime piano teacher, dared to appear nude from the waist up on the cover of Colorado Woman News, a Denver magazine, to raise consciousness for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, nine years later, with 17,000 copies of Fine Black Lines sold, the book has helped thousands of women cope with the medical and emotional challenges of breast cancer. Hjelmstad has given over 450 presentations in 38 states, England, and Canada, challenging her audiences to learn to take risks. She knows whereof she speaks, from a personal standpoint, and as an independent publisher.

This summer Lois published another book, The Last Violet: Mourning My Mother. At age 72, she is going strong and is one of the many senior-aged authors who go for it every day, writing and publishing books of all kinds, expressing themselves, telling their life stories, and sharing their wisdom and experience with younger generations and the rest of the world.

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Karma Kitaj, in her book, Women Who Could...and Did: Lives of 26 Exemplary Artists and Scientists (Huckle Hill Press 2001), profiles two poets, both now in their mid-seventies, Carolyn Kizer and Maxine Kumin. Both women speak about their need to write and their place in the world as poets.

Kizer, whose Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems 1960-2000 won the 2002 IPPY Award for poetry, recalls her days working for the NEA, promoting poetry:

"Life in Washington was very interesting in the mid-sixties. We came up with a lot of good programs. I sent writers to poor black colleges that had nobody teaching writing or even thinking about it. We gave individual grants, and supported literary magazines and independent publishers of literature. One program we started was called 'Poetry in the Schools, sending young teachers out to grade schools and high schools. It was a bridge for writers, keeping them going during this very difficult period of their lives."

This kind of political and social involvement has always been part of Kizer's work: "I really don't understand how people can write poetry that is purely personal and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the world around them or the conflicts or tragedies with which we are surrounded. All the poets that I really care deeply about are people that are very much involved in what's going on in the world. It's always been very, very important to me to be part of the world and not just part of my own little milieu."

Maxine Kumin has written The Long Marriage (W.W. Norton 2002), her first book of poetry since recovering from a near-fatal horse-driving accident in 1999. Her poetry has always drawn closely on her personal life, and she marvels at the changes in women's poetry over the years:

"Now women are beginning to write about what it's like to be a woman, what it's like to have children. They're writing about their bodies, they're writing about life's passage. It's not easy; it's a real juggling act to keep it all going. I've always worked at home. When my kids were very little, the minute they went out the door to grammar school, I went to my desk." "I started writing poems, not to be a big name or success or even to get a book published, but out of an inner need. I think poets are obsessed, that's why they write poems. Who would want to be a poet? So I didn't have very high expectations, and it's a little bemusing to see where I am, that I now have historical status. It's heightened my feeling of responsibility toward younger women writers."

In a February Atlantic Unbound interview, Kumin talks about the life-sustaining power of poetry and writing. She describes how fellow poet Anne Sexton, who took her own life in 1974 at the age of 45, would not have lasted nearly as long without her writing, and believes that writing sustained her through her own difficult recuperation period. "It was thinking of myself as a writer, respecting myself as a writer, that kept me going," she says. Her daughter Judith must have also known this, because it was she who brought her laptop to the hospital and said to her mother, "You talk and I'll type."

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Dale Carlson has been writing and publishing since the 1960's, back when the young adult genre had yet to be named. She had nearly 50 books in print -- many of them ALA Notable Books and New York Public Library Best Books for Teens -- but the New York publishing establishment didn't "get" the new titles she wanted to write. So, she decided to publish them herself, and Bick Publishing House was born.

Carlson released books in her specialty areas of teen psychology and wildlife rehabilitation, and the breakthrough titles were the award winning and oft-reprinted Girls Are Equal Too and Where's Your Head? Her pioneering spirit was bolstered by her experience and reputation, and Carlson acknowledges that starting out as an unknown entity would have been difficult. "I think the key is to communicate well with the public, and not just foist yourself upon them gratuitously," she says. "They won't buy it if you're not good."

The Bick Publishing catalogue now includes primers on relaxation and meditation for teens and adults, such as the IPPY Award-winning Stop the Pain: Teen Meditations. Carlson's latest project is a teen philosophy book called Who Said What? It will be another great tool for helping teens sort out words of wisdom from the mass of information they're barraged with today. Like her previous titles, the book is presented in a teen-friendly spirit of acceptance and sharing.

Now 67 years old, she finds it "ridiculous" to sit around and debate what should and shouldn't be published. "I'm delighted to live in the United States, where we can do anything we want to do, and let the marketplace decide what works. It's all about what's useful to people and what's nourishing to us. After all, we're the species with language, and since we have no speed, no claws, scales or fur going for us, we've come to specialize in ideas and communication. From the time of talking drums to town criers, from papyrus to broadsheets, we've been expressing ourselves and making our thoughts known to others."

"Of course being an independent author or publisher isn't for everyone - it takes great stamina, and a huge capacity for being rejected. You've got to be able to continually take that blow to the solar plexus." This is the kind of lesson she undoubtedly shares with her daughter Hannah, a new Bick Publishing featured author, who has begun to put her expertise in developmental disabilities into book form.

"I told Hannah she has to put what she's learned into books, to pass on what she's got. Like Maya Angelou says, 'What you get, give. What you learn, teach.'"

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Francis Kazemek in an education professor in Minnesota who conducts writing workshops for seniors. His book, Exploring Our Lives: A Writing Handbook for Senior Adults outlines the methods he uses, and describes the creative writing that emerges. Kazemek often compiles collections of his students' writings to share immediate and extended families, other elders in the community, and some public school teachers who engage their kids in intergenerational work with elders.

"The values in such collections are many," he says. "They affirm the elders' writing in a public way. They acknowledge the elders' belief that in writing they are indeed engaging not only in a kind of 'life review' but also in a kind of self-creation. They celebrate in the community the past history, and preserve for future generations of family and community members the particular lives, times, and experiences of a particular group of people."

In his book Kazemek makes a comparison between professional writers (novelists, journalists, poets, etc.) and those who write as amateurs. "While the amateur might not reach the same level of excellence as the professional, that doesn't mean they won't experience the same joy, excitement, and satisfaction," he says. "And that's what self-publishing does for the writer. Moreover, if the work is targeted to a specific audience for a specific purpose, it will also bring joy and satisfaction to various readers."

"Over the years I've had elders openly express the value of writing with others and gathering their work in bound collections. A WWII veteran once said that the writing group and shared writing provided him his much-needed 'therapy.' Several elders have said over the years that through the writing and sharing they have learned more about and are more connected to other members of the group than almost anyone else they know. One nonagenarian who has written several kids' books and church musicals and has had them copied, bound, and distributed said that some of her closest friends and family members subsequently said that they 'didn't know those things' about her." Not all of those inspired to write have the means -- or the courage -- to get published. It often takes a lot of encouragement, inspiration and sometimes a little push...

Nancy Landrum knew she wanted to write a book when she was six years old. This year she finally got that book finished and published. She turned 57 in March.

"I wanted to write a book that would help others live their lives more successfully," she says. "At the time, I was finding life to be quite painful, and the relationships in our home were what is now known as 'very dysfunctional.' I wanted to find a way to be in a loving marriage and then help others do the same. I had no concept of what a long, exhausting journey that goal would require."

In spite of coming from a family where women were only allowed limited visibility, being widowed at the age of 23, and struggling through years of single-parenthood, the seed of the dream remained alive inside her. A second marriage that started out with great hope nearly ended in unrelieved conflict, but she and husband Jim learned the skills they needed to save their marriage.

Soon the revitalized couple began teaching others what they had learned about relationship rescue. Nancy returned to college and finished her BA, completed a Masters in Spiritual Psychology, and survived the loss of her oldest son. "During those years I rarely thought about writing a book," she recalls. "It was enough to get through one day at a time."

"After teaching about 1000 couples through our classes, we knew what we had learned was valued by others. Jim urged me to start on the book. Years of conditioning to think of myself as small and insignificant made moving forward on my dream very scary. Could I write? Would anyone care about our story? Was there anyone out there who could actually be helped by hearing my voice?" She wrote three chapters and quit. The process was just too daunting. After two years of further growth and "inner stretching" she wrote three more chapters -- and quit again. After two more years she realized she couldn't live with not knowing whether or not she could do it, so she made an appointment with a professional who edited college thesis papers for masters and doctoral candidates. She read the first few pages of chapter one and began to explain what her services would be and how she charged. "She thought we wanted to hire her," says Nancy. "I said, 'All I really want to know is, can I write?'"

The editor laughed. "You caught my attention with the first paragraph, drew me into your story, and I was on page three before I could stop. You have talent! I can't teach you that. There are some little things I can clean up for you, but lady, you can write!" Nancy burst into tears. "I shudder now, to think what enormous power I placed in the hands of a stranger and how fortunate I am that she was encouraging. Her words released a torrent of words in me. I wrote for days and most nights." The rest of that book and a second one were written in about four months.

Part of Nancy's journey was attending a writer's conference to gather whatever information she could about the publishing process. There she learned that writers without a broad public forum attract little interest from the big publishing houses, and even with a royalty publisher, most of the marketing and promotional work is still up to the author. The Lundrums decided to form their own publishing company and hired professionals to help with design, editing and promotion.

Whether or not How to Stay Married & Love It! becomes a commercial success, Nancy feels it is already successful in several critical ways. 1) The desire to create and maintain loving relationships kept me pushing for answers when any sane person might have given up. 2) The desire to break out of the limits imposed by the unwritten rules for females in my family pushed me to finish school and teach what I'd learned. 3) The dream that wouldn't die pulled me into an accomplishment I didn't really believe I could do.

"By these measurements, my book is already a success," she says. "Do I hope the book sells millions? Of course! Do I believe it to be valuable? Yes! Will I wait until I see a big royalty check to pronounce it successful? No, it's too late for that, because it already is. My dream of writing a book that would help others live their lives more successfully has already come true. I have learned I am a person of significance and we are passing on to our children and grandchildren a legacy-not just a physical book-but a legacy of more functional, loving relationships. That legacy was worth the journey.

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Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness
165 pages; $14.95 ISBN: 0-9637139-5-7
The Last Violet: Mourning My Mother
by Lois Hjelmstad
146 pages; $14.95 ISBN: 0-9637139-7-3
http://www.mulberryhillpress.com

Women Who Could...and Did: Lives of 26 Exemplary Artists and Scientists
By Karma Kitaj
320 pages; $16.95
ISBN: 0971595720
http://www.hucklehillpress.com

In and Out of Your Mind: Teen Science, Human Bites
by Dale Carlson
256 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 1-881458-27-7
http://www.bickpubhouse.com/newbooks.html

Exploring Our Lives: A Writing Handbook for Senior Adults
By Francis E. Kazemek
312 pages; $14.95
ISBN: 1-891661-26-4
http://www.santamonicapress.com/catalog

How to Stay Married & Love It!
By Nancy Lundrum w/ Jim Lundrum
220 pages; $17.95
ISBN: 0-9719314-2-9
http://www.HowtoStayMarried.com