Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

A: That was so long ago. I guess it was probably when I got my first “A” on a paper titled, with amazing originality, “My Summer Vacation,” a firsthand account of a fourth-grader’s experiences at summer camp. Some of it was icky (missing Mom, ants, mosquitoes, bears eating brownies in our tent), and some of it was great (s’mores, swimming, canned chocolate milk, singing around the campfire). Our garbage disposal was a pig named “Sierra Sadie,” that took a special interest in me. It was the stuff of legend. After that, I was hooked.

Q: How and when did you make this dream a reality?

A: I did a lot of writing in college; but as I was a Drama major for the first year or two, I spent most of my free time learning lines for school plays. I was on my way to stardom, but reality intervened. It turned out, I wasn’t such a great actress. I tried many other jobs: model, chorus girl, sales clerk, PBX operator, teacher, ballet dancer, interior designer; but I wasn’t very good at those, either. At the age of 60, I began to write again in earnest. At this rate, I could be the Grandma Moses of writing. Turns out I’m not too bad at that, so I intend to keep doing it.

Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your writing career?

A: To listen, and to be humble. There’s always more to learn.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: My current project is another memoir, weaving together many of the early elements in my life— the things that shaped me, and made me who I am today.

Q: Name some authors or books that have influenced your writing life in a positive way.

A: As I’ve mentioned before, Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird, was a huge influence because of the way she describes her writing process—ditto Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, which is my bible. I also loved reading Eudora Welty’s memoir of her early life and influences, and the essays of E.B. White and Wendell Berry.

Q: What have you recently read or what are you reading right now that you would consider an outstanding work?

A: I just finished Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, a wrenching tale that spans several Afghani women’s lives, from the 1940s through Mujahideen rule, then Taliban and now Al Queda. Right now I’m reading Annick Smith’s memoir of Montana life, Homestead. I recently read Beryl Markham’s memoir, West With The Night. The book is about her fascinating life in 1930’s British East Africa and beyond; flying her small plane alone through the desert with no radio and no parachute, but with a lot of daring and I suspect, good fortune, as she lived to tell the tale.

Q: What excites or ignites your soul?

A: I think the whole process of writing is exciting to me. It isn’t easy, but I’m happy while I’m doing it. The necessity of introspection required of the memoirist never fails to give me insight into just what it is that makes me and the people around me tick, in a way that nothing else can.

Mary Lynn Archibald is a freelance business copywriter and author of two memoirs: Briarhopper, (a woman’s odyssey from Kentucky’s coal country to California, from her birth in 1913 to 1945 at the end of World War II); and the soon-to-be published Accidental Cowgirl: Six Cows, No Horse and No Clue. Be among the first to reserve your autographed copy. Send an e-mail to: marylynn@winecountrywriter.com Pub date—August 20th. A former interior designer and teacher, Mary Lynn is a regular contributor to New York Times affiliate, The Press Democrat. Her articles have appeared in ABODE Magazine, Homebuilders and Simply Real Estate. Visit Mary Lynn at www.winecountrywriter.com.