What's the name of your articles? And who is the publisher?

“How Grizzly Bears Solve Puzzles” article was published in the 2020 Winter edition of the JAKES Country magazine. The article was re-published in the June 2020 edition of The School Magazine.

In May 2020, the Beyond Centauri magazine published the “Riding an Elevator to Space” article.

Give us a short summary of your work.

The How Grizzly Bears Solve Puzzles article, for ages 9 to 11, introduces readers to the WA State University Bear center and describes how the bears use their amazing intelligence, strength, and senses to solve puzzles. The Riding an Elevator to Space article, for ages 8 to 12, introduces the reader to gravity, force, orbits and carbon nanotubes as it takes the reader on an elevator ride to space.

Tell us a bit about your path to publishing, from idea to to submission to publication.

I came up with the idea for the bear center article after visiting the center to see the grizzly bears, and doing background research on the center. Watching the grizzly bears was inspiring.

The idea for the “Riding an Elevator to Space” article came from researching various proposals and designs for this unusual mode of traveling to space.

How long have you been writing?

I was a freelance journalist for seven years before transitioning to technical writing in the software industry. I was a technical writer for 28 years. For the past 2 years I’ve focused on writing for children.

What's your favorite genre to write and why?

I’m interested in both fiction and non-fiction.

Which courses have you taken?

Writing for Children and Teens

Beyond the Basics: Writing and Selling Short Stories and Articles

How has taking our courses helped your writing and/or career?

I’ve learned to develop a tight focus for the subject I’m interested in writing about. Also, I think that I have become better at both pitching my articles to prospective publishers, and selecting publishers that will most likely be interested in my articles.

Have any of your class assignments been published?

Both the “How Grizzly Bears Solve Puzzles” article and the “Riding an Elevator to Space” article were class assignments.

Do you have a favorite writing tip you'd like to share? 

I try to write the opening paragraph as if I’m trying to interest myself in reading the article.