Lynn has wanted to be a writer for most of her adult life. When Lynn was 45 years old she enrolled at Carlow College (now University) and majored in Creative Writing. During her first year, her writing teacher was very complimentary and she was excited for this fresh start into a writing career, away from the drudgery of office work which she had been reluctantly participating in for 25 years. And then her writing professor died. Unfortunately, Lynn did not connect with the replacement writing instructor. It wasn’t that he was uncomplimentary, he was supportive of her writing, but she was devastated by her previous instructor’s demise. So she switched majors and ended up focusing on theology, sociology, women’s studies and then ended up doing an internship in spiritual counseling in hospice work. Honestly, could she be any further from her dream of being a writer?
After graduation she ended up back in the office. A receptionist first (several career steps backwards) and then eight more years doing administrative type work for Point Park University. Several times at her desk, while she was in a slow time during the work day, she would start writing a story. But then she’d have to balance a spreadsheet or go to a meeting and never get back to the story she had started. However, she never lost the dream to be a writer. She just couldn’t get past a chapter or two and stick with it.
In a weird turn of events, as only the Universe is capable of, Lynn meets a man through an online dating service. Not that meeting a man is a weird universal turn of events but what ensued was pretty unexpected. After a year of dating this boyfriend, he asked her to move with him to Florida. Everyone that knows her, knows of her love of Florida, which is based on an 18-month stint of living in Florida when she was 19 years old. At that time she lived in Coconut Grove. It was the 80’s. Really anyone that gets out of Coconut Grove, alive, and not a drug addict should be commended. It was the weather that she loved. The sun, the breezes, the beach. She vowed she would one day return, to live in Florida, this time sober.
So how could she pass up this opportunity to move to Florida with this man she knew little about, to help him reconnect with his four children who had been scattered around ever since his wife died 4 years before they met? Really, how much does anyone know about anyone after dating a year, or 30 years? It’s a crapshoot during the best of times under the best circumstances. The only thing you can do is go all in…or stay home. She went all in.
And then the blog happened.
Because she had left her family and many friends behind, like literally 1000 miles behind, she starts a blog to keep everyone apprised of her fairy tale life with this new man in sunny Florida. Writing the blog became her “thing.” She made it her job to post something, anything, once a day, taking the weekends off. She became a writer. After a while of struggling with posting only positive-sunny-type posts she started lagging behind with the daily aspect of it. However, with encouragement from her readers (all 32 of them) she kept going and to this day she continues to blog. Not a very consistent blogger, but nevertheless when she has something to say she’ll sit down and ramble on. She prides herself in writing nonsense. However on occasion someone will find a thread of inspiration or connection with something she has to say.
Lynn’s first book, Finally Florida, is the collection of blogs she wrote during her time in Florida with the boyfriend and his family. It is marketed as a fictionalized memoir, however it is based on the actual events and the actual blogs. The names have been changed.
Now Lynn is a blogger turned author.
Although the blogging continues, quite sporadically, Lynn is looking forward to her next book(s). She has a book started that is a continuation of events after the end of Finally Florida. She has another book started that describes her secret to retirement when she has no business retiring (in the traditional sense). And/but what she’d really like to take a crack at is a true fictional story. Some kind of mystery with a surprise twist at the end. Those are her favorite kinds of books. Can she do it? Can she pull off a fiction? Or is she destined to write about nonsense, that surprisingly connects with her readers.
Stay tuned, stay positive, stay posted. Let her know what you think, about anything. You can reach her at finallyflorida2018@gmail.com