Blog Posts by Susan Egner
Inspirations, thoughts by Minnesota author and flight attendant
September 30
I think I made the decision to become a writer in the 7th grade. My closest friend at the time, now a published poet, also wanted to be a writer. However, I had one desire that surpassed my desire to write and that was to own my own horse. At the time, I went horseback riding almost every day in the summer with my friend. She had a wonderful quarter horse named “Shorty” on which we rode double.
Not far from the stable was Mr. Tippit’s ranch. He bought and sold horses and always had about 30 or 40 in his pasture. He told us, “If you can catch it, you can ride it.” For free was understood—and that was music to our ears! It usually took us between three and four hours to catch a horse and then another hour to brush all the dirt and burrs from its coat and mane. Picture this in the summer heat of Florida. But it was worth it. That gave us at least another five hours; and if we were lucky and my father was picking us up after work, we’d have six hours to ride. It was like owning our own horse. Some days, however, we never caught a horse.
Anyway, many of the magazines published for kids our age seemed to understand a 13-year-old girl’s love for horses because they were always offering writing contests. The winner would win a thoroughbred. That was beyond our wildest dreams and all the incentive we needed!
The first year, Dash detergent sponsored the contest, and we both won (a supply of Dash detergent)! The next year Ipana toothpaste was the sponsor, and we both won again (a supply of Ipana toothpaste)! The last year we entered, a patriotic organization sponsored the contest; and, you guessed it, we both won…an American flag.
I never won my horse, but I did win a permanent passion for writing.
I mentioned that I became a flight attendant rather late in life. I’m sure you’re wondering why. Remember, all of this is in the context of my writing career. If you have visited my website, you know that I have two children’s books published in hardcover. Three months after those books were published, I had the opportunity for them to be considered for an animated television series. One catch: in order to qualify, I was given 30 days to produce a demo featuring the characters in my books. Not a problem. I had some great producers who hit the ground running, found a local animation studio, and the rest is history. Our demo won the offer. However, we needed to raise funding for the first season. A successful season would mean the network would get corporate sponsorship for me.
At the time, I was employed as a marketing director but thought, “Hey, this is the brass ring—accept the challenge!” So I retired from my job, spent a year writing a business plan, and secured the necessary funding commitments in November 2007 (just after the stock market had reached an all-time high). We agreed to sign checks and get underway in February 2008. Does anyone remember what was happening in the stock market in February 2008? Refresher course: we were in the early stages of what came to be called “The Great Recession.” Investors, including mine, began backing away from prior commitments; and, if you remember, I had retired.
No chance to return to my former position. Suddenly, it seemed as if all the money in the country had gone into lockdown. “Now what?” I asked my friends.
“You should become a flight attendant,” some said.
“Say what?” I said in a tone of disbelief, as I pointed to my white hair.
“Oh, they love people like you,” they said. “And besides, it will give you a chance to meet lots of people and increase the opportunity to find funding for your children’s television series.”
Well, it’s true. I have met a lot of people. None, however, has stepped forward to fund my television series, but a few have offered to make some calls. Since my children’s character was featured as one of ten programming initiatives at a gala event held in the Chicago Field Museum, I continue to hold out hope for my beloved children’s series, “Has Anyone Seen Woodfin?” If you have any ideas, please visit my website at www.woodfin.cc.
In the meantime…I have heard so many stories and met such a diverse cross-section of people aboard my flights that I couldn’t help myself. I had to write about what I was seeing and hearing and experiencing: I had discovered an untapped resource in anecdotes that I knew would work well in adult fiction, so I published my first ebook mystery in 2012. When I wrote my first flight attendant mystery, “Souls On Board,” readers seemed to like it, so I wrote a sequel, “Ground Stopped!” Same reaction.
That was eight books and over 2,000 readers ago, and I haven’t stopped to look back. I’m working hard on the next sequel in the “Souls on Board” series, and I anticipate it will be published by the end of October. I’ve learned that Life offers interesting paths for all of us: some are a bit rocky, some even muddy, but all are exciting. I know mine is. But a lot happened in my life before this to enrich my writing. Let’s save that for another time.
When I speak to readers of my books or make appearances, many ask why I started writing. So here goes.
I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, one of three daughters of a newspaper reporter, mostly photographer, for the Florida Times-Union. Having someone in the family in the newspaper business was like having an open channel to everything going on in our hometown. Dinner as a family was not to be missed, especially as a teenager, when I was reaching the age of questioning everything about life.
My father always shared his work stories with us during dinner, and he listened equally attentively to our everyday stories. His stories were exciting, interesting, heartrending, and occasionally weird: the perfect definition of life. His stories intrigued me and at an early age.
I started writing around the 7th grade. My earliest attempts centered on trying to create stories based on my father’s stories. Sometimes all I wanted was a better ending. I also kept journals all my life, filled with events, places, and people whose characters or experiences I would someday draw upon for a story. My closet is stacked full with them.
My mother had her hand in shaping my desire to write, as well. We often sat late into the evening in our Florida room talking not only about the day’s events and the reasons behind some of my dad’s stories, but also about how we might respond, personally, if we found ourselves in similar circumstances. My mother was an incredibly compassionate person. I never heard her speak ill of anyone, ever. Instead, she’d pose two questions: “What would you do in the same circumstances? How would you change things?”
Together, my parents instilled in me the values for living my own life. And in doing so, they gave me the pattern for development of the characters I create—people who face similar challenges and must ask themselves those same questions. How grateful I am for their inspiration. Writing has always been my life’s joy.
Becoming a flight attendant late in life has given me even more to write about, but we’ll talk about that the next time.