In 1975, I quit my tenure, and we moved from Ann Arbor to New Hampshire. It was daunting to pay for groceries and the mortgage by freelance writing - but it worked, and I loved doing it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I left home to go to college, and then I moved back home. I moved back for three years from 21 to 24.
For 10 years, I'd been working as a freelance writer and editor, making money but not a living. It was a good arrangement family-wise, allowing me to stay home with our daughter, but not so great financially or, sometimes, ego-wise.
I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that, I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.
About six months after I moved to New York City, I was literally down to my last twenty dollars when a friend of mine from college got me a job at an Upper East side gym. I ran the cafe, and I was the janitor. It was an unfortunate combination of duties, to say the least.
I went to college in Connecticut, which was when I still lived at home. I worked at a video store, a wine store, and did odd jobs here and there like landscaping.
I quit my job, and went ashore to become a writer.
I worked in restaurants, bars, record stores; I did anything and everything to pay my way through university and LAMDA.
I became a freelance stylist to survive, and then I had a kid. I bankrupted in 1988 and had a kid in 1990.
I moved to Princeton, Indiana, and became a professional Farm Manager for that Princeton Farms.
I had to live this long, have the experiences I've had, to create what I do. I knew I wanted to write for years, but I had to be ready so I wouldn't blow it. The move to Maine was the final step.