1. Have you always been a writer?

No, I haven’t.  Even though I was always good in English classes as a K-12 student, I hated writing compositions and essays because I was a lazy student who wanted to do as little as possible to get an “A.”  Poetry was the first thing that enticed me.  In 5th grade, my class once had to write a poem, and I wrote about basketball.  I recall one line at the end,

“Basketball is nice

Basketball is never the same game twice!”

It got lots of positive feedback in my class, but I never really got into poetry either until 10th grade.  Thanks to my American Literature teacher at Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming, Mrs. Shirley Wangelin, well, she got me via her class to see poetry as a great way to express life’s struggles.  And boy was I struggling as a teenager growing up in Casper, Wyoming, in the early 80s with undiagnosed/unchecked Asperger’s Syndrome, which was only helping me to push away my peers most of the time, which really hurt me romantically, too.   And my heart was really hurting over my debacles of being in love for the first time with a certain girl, who I kept seeing virtually every school day since we were in elementary school and who I fell head over heels in love with in 6th grade.  I blew it with her, but the pain of that wouldn’t go away, and she became the inspiration for writing poetry seriously!  Still, I was really afraid to share my feelings even via writing with others for the most part. 

Mrs. Wangelin would have me and other kids who wished come to her class during our lunch hour and we’d read and share poetry!  Sometimes, I’d share my hurting heart poems.  Some of us even went to a writing competition one weekend in northwestern Wyoming with other high school kids to write.  I believe I had 45 minutes to write a poem from scratch, and my poem about a funny childhood incident got me Honorable Mention!  It was my first recognition as a writer, which happened to be on my 16th birthday in 1983!

2. When did you realize that maybe writing was actually a "thing" you could do, get published and even sell?

This was a really long process indeed!  My love of travel is what led me to become someone who really wanted to get published for pay.  Yes, I’d write poems and share them more as an adult with people I knew as long as they weren’t too personal.  Sometimes, I’d use Writers Market books and submit my poems half-ass-like, but never got anywhere.  When I began to travel abroad and see articles by the European travel guru Rick Steves in print, I began to wish I could be an actual travel writer.  This was in the late 1990s.  I began to become fascinated with strange airport codes like MSY for New Orleans and ORD for Chicago and began to research them.  Well, I was working as a travel agent, and I found enough strange airport codes to where I contributed them to its company newsletter.  It was a hit!  But in my next two jobs as a Retail Inventory worker and as a Parts Person for a regional airline, I’d contribute articles for the company newsies, but never got anything for it except a 12 pack of soda because I did the assignment for a co-worker who didn’t want to the do the project, so she “paid” me to write the article. 

Traveling so much in Europe made me really want to become a travel writer even more so, and after becoming involved in a language immersion program in Spain for Spaniards trying to learn English, this would be the catalyst that would eventually lead to my first paid travel article acceptance in 2004!

3. What was your first sale as a writer and how did it feel to sell your work?

I decided I didn’t want to work for the airline anymore.  I was single and had saved up some money and with the help and encouragement of my mentor, Robert Powell, I decided to give freelance writing my total focus in August 2004.  My travel article about the Spain program above was rejected a lot, but finally, the editor of Transitions Abroad was interested in it and was going to pay me $100 for the work.  BUT, getting that first article in print with my name on it made me all anxious.  The article was delayed and it wouldn’t be until next spring that it was finally in print, and I was so excited after all the waiting!  Now, I just take being published in stride, but it was, I guess, like when someone has their first baby, ha ha!   But before that article was actually published, late in 2004, writing newsletter editor Gregory Kompes and I emailed back and forth.  I told him how I got an acceptance as a travel writer and he asked me to write an article about becoming a travel writer!  This would lead me to write many writing-themed articles for various publications, including The Writer magazine as well as yours, Dawn, Burning the Midnight Oil, if I recall rightly!   Once I began to freelance write, I subscribed to many writing newsies, including Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers and Angela Hoy’s Writers Weekly to get tips and markets, and publication in their mediums, too!   One positive thing leads to another!   

4. How has writing helped you in other areas of life besides being something you could earn money from?

Writing has helped me come to terms with my past, especially my adolescent and teen years growing up in Casper, Wyoming.  That special girl from that time when I was growing up, well, she was more than just a pretty face!  As I reflect on the past, she really helped me see the inner soul of myself for the first time but it also exposed all the fears and self-hate I had for myself which is why I blew it with her and had such a rough time in my coming-of-age years.  But her inspiration just by her presence alone during six school years started me on my road of inner self acceptance and it would be writing that would be the inner tool for me for this long and winding road we call life.  It was very painful to deal with, but writing gives the struggles of life a sense of the epic via a form of art that I’ve come to fully embrace.  She was the catalyst of me becoming a writer and finding my real calling in life! 

I see myself as a writer first and foremost, even though I make my living in retail now, but I still submit things hoping for extra money via a few acceptances each year.  Writing was my main source of income from 2004-14 but I still dabble in it and use my writing skills as a moderator/contributor to a Facebook group on growing up in Casper, Wyoming, where I’ve shared much of my young life’s experiences.  I’ve also been the editor of two past employers’ newsletters, too.   Writing is who I am at my core as it’s my gift of expression. 

5. What was your biggest accomplishment as a writer?

As a travel writer, I was privileged to go on about 40 press trips all over the USA and Europe where I was the guest of tourist boards and they paid all my expenses for the most part to come out and experience their venues and then write about my experiences to garner interest in their locales!  My ability to write has taken me to places and helped me to experience things that I wouldn’t have otherwise done.  I’ve been published twice in Chicken Soup for the Soul books.  I’ve interviewed “The Exorcist” star Linda Blair. 

That beautiful girl from my past really gave me a gift that went beyond just being able to say I dated her, which sadly, I never did because I was too afraid to take the risk.  But she’s is always got a special place in my heart even though I would have actual romantic relationships, including now with my boyfriend, who, ironically, was born just days after I first encountered my “forever muse,” the year being 1977.   

Yes, writing has helped me come to terms with being bisexual, too.  It was again in that special city of Casper, Wyoming, where I first noticed that I was attracted to both sexes, and two years ago, a Drexel University publication called The Smart Set published my coming out story, and I got paid well for it!  It was a bit scary at first coming out, but I’m so glad I can be more open about who I am.  We sometimes just have to follow our dreams and take risks in a, as Christian author/evangelist Joyce Meyer says, “do it afraid” way.   If you let fear win out, then your life will be one of regrets as I learned the hard way during my Casper years.

6. Who has inspired you the most in the writing field?

I think I answered that above, ha ha!!! And of course, my mentor Robert Powell was great in helping me.  For a long time, he’d pay me $1 for every rejection letter/email I got from publishers just to give me the incentive to keep on trying!  And to repeat, my 10th grade English teacher, Mrs. Shirley Wangelin, was a great early influence via her class and her love of literature in capturing the human condition.   But yes, that special girl from my Casper past, despite me making such a mess of things, she’s in everything I write.  I’ve always hoped to be able to tell her one day how much she meant to me in my life, her being such a muse and all, but the one time I did write to her many years ago, I never heard back from her.  I just have to accept that.  It still doesn’t take away what she did for me though.

7. What are some of the challenges you have faced as a writer and how did you overcome them?

The fear of rejection.  Sometimes a writer can think he or she will never get an acceptance for the work produced with passion, thought, and love.  I’ve had over 2000 rejections as a freelance writer, but I listen to the feedback from editors and even my mentor, who reads much of my work, and ask how can I improve it.  If I’m happy with my work, I just keep submitting it until I find an acceptance for it.  It’s so easy today to submit work via venues like Submittable and other electronic means. 

If publications reject my work, it’s because it’s not a fit for them and/or, it’s their loss that someone else will get the benefit of.  If you believe in your writing, keep on submitting it.  J.K. Rowling was told her books were too long for kids by a number of publications before she found acceptance by Scholastic.  Guess who’s laughing all the way to a zillion banks now with all her books and licensed products that are never-ending?

You also need to be disciplined when working on a piece to give ample time daily to it as well as giving ample time to researching paying markets.  I make sure I go through my market newsletters when they arrive in my inbox.   The more markets you find, the better chance you’ll find one that will like your work and pay for an acceptance of your work.  I still submit personal essays and poetry now, and am really disciplined about keeping up on submitting to new markets and ones I’ve submitted to before.

8. What is the best writing advice you have ever received and why do you feel it is important?

“Write what you know and love and/or write about what you want to know about.”   If you are really interested in something, it makes all the hard work of researching, writing, and editing all the more fun.  Writing shouldn’t be a chore that you hate.  If it is, then find another job that you have some interest in and is probably easier to make money at. 

9. What sort of writing do you do now?

I write poems still, personal essays, and also contribute to and moderate a Facebook group about growing up in Casper, Wyoming, where I was birthed as a writer!

10. Where can we find some of your work online?

I used to go on assignment for travel articles for a publication called Bootsnall.com, which still has my work in their archives.

You can find my coming out story called “Stonewalling Myself” via  the online publication The Smart Set.

Sadly, the Yahoo! site I used to write for ceased operation and all my old articles on that site disappeared years ago.   I garnered some six million page views from those articles I wrote about which included current events, culture, travel, and opinion pieces.

11. What advice do you have for other aspiring writers thinking of taking the leap of getting their work published?

JUST DO IT!!!  Work on your pieces that you want to see published.  Find a writers’ group in your area or online and let others critique it, and ruminate on the criticisms but always trust your instincts on what you think your ultimate work should be like finished.   And have the courage to submit your work knowing that rejections are inevitable, but that one acceptance can change your life and lead to other writing opportunities.  If I can do it, anyone can!  And follow the writing guidelines and only submit work you want to be paid for to PAYING PUBLICATIONS!!!  There’s plenty of paying markets out there if you will subscribe to writing newsletters like I discussed above.  If you don’t mind giving some or all your writing work away, that’s your choice, too.  But outside my writing to the Casper Facebook group, I expect to be paid for my work, even if it’s just a 12 pack of soda, ha ha!!! 

12. What are your final thoughts about being a writer?

Writing is the best way I know of to express how one feels, what one is trying to describe such as a travel destination, or convey information.  It’s a true art form and I’m blessed to have this gift of expression by the grace of God. 

ABOUT ROY:

Roy A. Barnes has been a freelance writer since 2004, though his heyday of freelancing was from 2004-14.  He’s traveled all over the USA and Europe to write about travel destinations.   His work has appeared at Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Writer, Funds for Writers, WritersWeekly, Bootsnall.com, Poesia, Breath & Shadow, and many others.  He has also used the art of writing to help come to terms with his past and embrace his full self as a bisexual male with Asperger’s Syndrome.  He lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming. You can contact Roy at travelwriteroy@yahoo.com