Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
A: I fell into it really. I started out being a bio lab technician and gravitated to helping the post docs with their white papers. I then took the Publishing Procedures Course one summer at Radcliffe College and that’s when I knew I wanted to be in publishing. My first job was as Promotion Coordinator for the World Science Division of Addison Wesley.

Q: How and when did you make this dream a reality?
A: After years of writing promo copy and brochures, I wanted to do something more meaningful. I found the science journalism program at Boston University and found my voice writing about science.

Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your writing career?
A: Allow the process to happen.

Q: What are you working on right now?
A: I teach writing workshops and am an adjunct college writing instructor; I write feature science articles for a regional magazine; and I am coaching a fledgling author writing the story of her miracle son.

Q: Name some authors or books that have influenced your writing life in a positive way.
A: Joni B. Cole, author of Toxic Feedback. She has been a mentor and a sounding board for many of my projects. She taught me what it means to be a writer.

Q: What have you recently read or what are you reading right now that you would consider an outstanding work?
A: I’m reading Geraldine Brooks’ March about the father of Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women. The premise is intriguing and the writing is inspiring. Brooks also wrote Year of Wonders which is one of my all time favorite books.

Q: What excites or ignites your soul?
A: Teaching others and seeing magic happen when they open up to the creative process.

New England has been home to Deb McKew since her first day at Mount Holyoke College in central Massachusetts. She fell in love with the crisp autumns and snowy winters. Her double major in English and biology led her on a long and winding path to becoming a science writer. It became official when she graduated from Boston University’s College of Communication with a master’s degree in Science Journalism. The one thing she loves more than writing is inspiring others to write. In 2004, she earned New Hampshire certification in high school English from the Upper Valley Teacher Institute. She then converted an antique A-Frame cottage into a creative haven where she now holds writing workshops for teens and adults. In the fall, she will teach writing composition to freshmen at Colby-Sawyer College. She lives in Sunapee with her husband of 27 years and our teenage son. Visit her at www.wordsinplay.net

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