After eight years of writing and editing in Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec City (on subjects as varied as travel, forestry, federal prisons, nursing and cities), I followed my husband to Tempe, Arizona for his first university teaching job. With a master's degree and toddler four years later, I followed him again–-to Ann Arbor. Freelancing for the Ann Arbor News, and once for the Observer, as well as doing volunteer PR for a professor at UM-Dearborn, got me back into the work I missed. My volunteer work ended up helping the most. Two years as information officer at the Dearborn campus led to a new job there developing workshops for small businesses. And that led me off track–-into corporate fundraising on the Ann Arbor campus. After seven years of raising money from companies in the midwest, I eagerly jumped at the chance to set up and direct a development office for a nonprofit in early childhood education, headquartered in Ypsilanti, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. Some two-plus years later, I again followed my husband, this time to Seville, Spain, where he directed a UM program. Finally I was forced to learn Spanish! It wasn't a great career move, but it sure was a chance to get to know Spaniards in Andalucia, travel throughout the Iberian Peninsula and beyond to Morocco and Gibraltar. I should have been writing the whole time, but I was focused on learning the language and customs, making friends from various parts of the world, entertaining visitors....
Gradually in the years since, I have moved from fundraising back to writing and editing. I've done a lot of reinventing of myself, but one thing I can say for sure: my life as a fundraiser is behind me. I haven't lost the urge to sniff out stories wherever I am, so maybe there's hope that I will again see myself, and be seen, as a writer.
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