MY BEGINNINGS
I was born December 14,
1943 (Sagittarius!) in Emporia, Kansas, the first of three children,
and for six years, the only one. My parents read to me a lot, and from
Winnie-the-Pooh on, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I grew up in Wichita,
Kansas, where I worked, in high school, as a "soda jerk" at
a drugstore. What a great job! I was allowed to make myself any kind
of sundae I wanted. . . .my specialty was hot fudge sauce, marshmallow
fluff, whipped cream, and nuts. I didn't really care about the ice
cream.
I attended the University of Wichita, got married at twenty, and moved to Kansas City, where I finished my bachelor's degree and got a master's in English literature. I also got to travel with my academic, peripatetic, husband. We lived in Iowa, Paris, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Amsterdam, Wisconsin, Vancouver, Massachusetts, and Helsinki before being divorced at the end of the seventies.
During my twenties I either taught freshmen English in various colleges or hid away at home, writing fiction I was too timid to send around. I wish I had taken more creative writing courses. I did take one at the University of Iowa taught by C.D.B. Bryan, who was immensely helpful. I recommend writers' workshops to any aspiring writers.
Gradually my short stories were accepted by various college literary reviews, and in 1978 my first novel, Stepping, was accepted by Doubleday, who published it in January of 1980. By then I was divorced, with a son, Josh, who was 5, and a daughter, Sam, who was 3. We lived in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with two cats and one dog, who kept us safe and sane.
NANCY AND CHARLEY
CHARLEY WALTERS and NANTUCKET
In 1982, I flew to Nantucket to visit
a friend, and met Charley Walters, who owned a music store where he sold
records, then CDs, then “vinyl.” We
married in 1984, and since then we've lived on Nantucket island, in a
wonderful old house built in 1840. I've got a big half moon window in
the attic, where I write and gaze out at the harbor, watching the lighthouses
flash as the ferries and boats sail in and out.
For about ten years, I served on the board of trustees of local library and helped start The Friends of the Nantucket Atheneum, which was an enormous pleasure. When I was a child, our family made weekly trips to the library and came home with piles of books, feeling as satisfied as misers with wheelbarrows of gold. Perhaps because I live on an island, I've come to think of libraries as lighthouses for our souls. No matter how strange the coast line or stormy the weather, they are there, beaming a steady light toward us, leading us toward knowledge, information, advice, laughter, consolation, beauty, peace, and hope.
We have two cats and, at the moment, no dog, which is fine, because Rex thinks he's a border collie, and herds me around the house, especially when it's time to eat.
MY SON JOSH is now 36. He does mysterious thing with computers and runs his own software business, Xen Software LLC and he is an endless source of assistance and sanity when my computer decides to torment me.
He’s been with his partner, David Gillum for ten years. David is senior safety officer at the University of New Hampshire and also a wonderful artist and photographer. (He took the photo on this page!)
JOSH AND NANCY
JOSH AND DAVID
Take a look at Sam's blog!
wildemama.blogspot.com
My daughter Sam's book This Little Mommy Stayed Home got great reviews!
"Riotously hilarious, unabashedly honest, and positively impossible to put down." Jessica Brody
"...this brave and funny book gets the postpartum peaks and valleys so very, winningly, right." Elinor Lipman
"... you've got the incomparable Samantha Wilde rocking the hilariously appalling realities of motherhood and the modern marriage...." Karen Karbo
"They should issue this smart, hilarious novel along with newborn onesies and nursing pads." Pamela Redmond Satran
"Mothers everywhere deserve this book." Ellen Meister
SAM AND ADELINE
