Member's Salon
ASJA Members discuss their lives as writers

Alma Bond

Was there a particular moment when you knew you were a writer?

The revelation came to me after a dream, in which I was a huge fountain pen squirting ink. It filled the whole "screen."

Career high point and career low point?

High point: the publication of my first book, Who Killed Virginia Woolf? Low point: the many times when I thought I'd never find a publisher.

Oddest person you've ever encountered through your reporting?

I was on Mr. Happy's radio show yesterday, and he just sent me this email: "If I were a younger and richer man, I would come up and buy you a Guinness at Folley's Irish Pub and show you my autographed baseball I signed for him. I'd even change my socks! We do it fairly regularly in the South." If there is anything I am less interested in than a Guinness, it is a signed baseball, clean socks, and all.

Most memorable story?

I was a highly successful psychoanalyst for many years. Twenty years ago, I was in a terrible accident. A cab hit me while I was jogging in Central Park. I suffered seven broken bones, a concussion, and was in a coma. As I was coming out of it, I thought: Life hangs by a thread. I've had a good life, a good marriage, three wonderful children, and a great career. There is only one thing I want to do badly and have not done, and that is to write full time. I'd better do it now. So I gave my patients two years' notice, terminated analyses with many, and referred a few to other therapists to finish up. Then I moved to Key West, Florida, where I wrote most of my books. After that, I felt I could write anywhere and returned to New York.

From what work would you most like to remove your byline, and why?

Before I had any "real" books published, a dear friend surprised me by self-publishing a small book of my professional articles and early poems, called Aspects of Psychoanalysis. It is a bit embarrassing, at this point.

Was there a book that changed your life?

I think every book I write changes my life in some way. In my opinion, a book that doesn't isn't a very good book. But most dramatically, Old Age Is a Terminal Illness brought me in touch with my fear of dying, and helped me find a resolution (to the degree that there is any).

What did you do when you received notice of your first publication?

It was an article called "Sadomasochistic Patterns in an 18-Month Old Child" in the Journal of the International Psychoanalytic Association. I went on a high from which I haven't yet come down. I ran around the house excitedly showing the letter to the maid and my infant twins, because nobody else was around.

More about Alma at http://alma_bond.tripod.com

Alisa Bowman

Was there a particular moment when you knew you were a writer?

Over the years I've referred to myself as a reporter, a staff writer, an editor, and, for the past 10 years, either a "ghostwriter" or a "freelance writer."

I didn't feel like a true writer, though, until I launched a marriage blog (Project HappilyEverAfter.com) in 2008 and wrote a related memoir called Project: Happily Ever After (Running Press, 2011). Both projects allowed me to write 1) in my own voice, 2) in first person 3) about whatever I wanted, 4) just because I loved it. Writing that book wasn't at all about money and was completely about joy. It seemed like something a "writer" would do, and not so much like something a "freelance writer" would do.

Most memorable story?

It would have to be the story of Adele Jones, a high school teacher who was fired for "failing too many students." I covered that story from the beginning—when her students marched through town to protest her firing—to the end—when the school board voted to reinstate her. It was one of the hardest stories I ever covered, but also one of the most rewarding, because it really seemed as if my coverage made a difference.

From what work would you most like to remove your byline, and why?

Many years ago, I wrote a story for a national consumer magazine about the dangers of bypass surgery. I initially turned in a draft that I thought was well reported and balanced. It was then that it started to dawn on me that the editor wanted the story to paint a very particular picture of the practice of bypass surgery, a picture that, to me, didn't seem true based on my reporting.

I really wanted that clip, so I kept interviewing more and more sources, feeding them the quotes that the editor wanted in the story. I felt so uncomfortable about that story that I never used it as a clip. I'd like to think that, today, were I to find myself in the same situation, I'd have the integrity to tell the editor to hire a different writer.

Was there a book that changed your life?

As corny as this sounds, I'd have to say that it was The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. I've gotten to where I am today, in part, because I never gave up—I always believed that I "could," therefore I just kept trying until I got over whatever mountain it was that I was trying to climb at the time.

What did you do when you received notice of your first publication?

When my very first story, about an art show opening, appeared in The Collegian, the daily student-run newspaper at Penn State, my boyfriend matted and framed it along with little made-up quotes like:

"I laughed, I cried, you will, too!" – Barbara Walters

"Two thumbs up!" –Siskel & Ebert

"A modern literary masterpiece!" – The New York Times

You might think that I would have married a guy who would do such a thing for me. Alas, I broke up with him a short time later.

What does it mean to you to be a writer?

I believe you are a writer when you love the words just as much as you love the people in your life. If someone told you that you could no longer string those words into sentences, a part of you would die, just as a part of you would die if you lost one of your loved ones.

More about Alisa at www.alisabowman.com

Srikumar S. Rao

What does writing mean to you?

It is a privilege. My articles for Forbes and Financial World have been read by millions and some have led to major events such as business acquisitions and new product introductions. It is so nice to know that, in some small way, I am contributing to making the world a better place for many.

Most memorable story?

I did a major article on Ashoka, the non-profit that develops social entrepreneurs, for Forbes that received much notice. It was a labor of love and I poured myself into it. A wealthy insurance executive came to meet me to discuss what I had written and ended up giving several million dollars to Ashoka, which took it to an entirely new level of operation and recognition.

Was there a book that changed your life?

Not one book but a set of books that collectively certainly did. They include Be Here Now, by Ram Dass, Awareness and Contact with God by Anthony DeMello, and Tripura Rahasya, translated by Sri Ramanda Saraswathi. Also, Zen, Dawn in the West by Philip Kapleau.

What are you presently involved in?

I am now on my personal mission to transform the environment in our largest companies so that it is nourishing to the human spirit. Most large companies are highly toxic and they need not be so. The ideas I share in my books are drawn from wisdom traditions and absolutely raise consciousness levels of persons who do the exercises. When that happens to a number of persons in the same organization, magic results. That's what makes it all worthwhile.

How does writing figure in what you do?

It is the principal way in which I get the message out. I have been asked to blog by a number of online publications that cumulatively have millions of subscribers. Also, many of the exercises I prescribe have writing content.

Tell us more about the program you conduct.

It's called Creativity and Personal Mastery and involves five full days plus a weekend retreat conducted over a 10-week period. You get powerful tools that can transform every aspect of your life and many do report such profound change.

How is it different from the many other similar programs?

Most change programs get you to add to your will power to effect the change you would like and give you various techniques to aid you in this transformation. Thus, for example, if your issue is anger management, you may be asked to count to 10 before saying anything or to breathe deeply several times when you feel yourself losing your cool. Sometimes this works, sometimes it does not.

In my program we do not use effort of will. Instead, the exercises I use help you replace the mental models you use to see the world. As you change many of the models you use, you actually become a different person and behavioral change happens automatically.

Srikumar Rao has been an ASJA member for more than 15 years. More at www.areyoureadytosucceed.com or follow him on Twitter @srikumarsrao